Glen Mhor 8 Years Old Gordon & MacPhail Rare Old Highland Malt 40% NV

Professional reviews

Angus McRaild (86)

More power, fewer years… Colour: gold. Nose: this is still very brutalistic and rather austere, but it comes with a cereal backbone and sense of dusty waxiness that I find quite appealing. The porridge is also back, this time with a sprinkle of salt. Then it really begins to develop with lamp oil, animal fats, rye bread, stout, chicken broth, lanolin and coal scuttle. Also more of these funny ‘Mhor-esque’ mineral touches that make you think of gravel and plasticine, but here they are more controlled and subtle. With water: ever so slightly tamer, with some subtle honey, wood spices, lightly smoked teas, newspaper ink and mashed potato. Mouth: this is pretty good, there’s clearly some sherry at play, but it seems to only contribute to and magnify this brutality and austerity. It’s very lean, mineral and sharp in profile. Medicines, vapour rubs, tar, ham, pasta water, salt baked vegetables and bouillon powder. With water: at its best I would say, lean, bone dry, full of brittle waxes, peppery warmth, dusty old dried herbs, camphor and a rising tang of farmyard. Finish: really pretty long, still rather superbly peppery, full of camphor, dry waxes, lamp oil again, toolbox cloths and things like white mushroom, petrichor impressions and wet, mossy bark. Comments: hip flask whisky for dour teuchter farmers that own more than five tractors (only two working). Seriously, I would say this is the good side of Glen Mhor, but it’s still a total beast of a dram. Nothing exists today with this kind of profile in my experience.