Old Pulteney 9 Years Old Càrn Mòr Strictly Limited 47.5% 2011

Professional reviews

BOW (84)

Nose: Gentle with spring blossoms, fresh yellow fruit, linen cupboard and honey.
Taste: Vomplex and diverse;honey, yellow and orange fruit, somewhat "salty" sea influences accompanied with brown sugar and wood.
Finish: round and clean. "A summer at the sea".

Serge Valentin (87)

I imagine that we are very close to the heart of the distillate here, unless poorly raised barrels were used, let's check this... Colour: pale white wine. Another good news. Nose: here is an even more austere version, which gives pride of place to sea breezes, in the style of a manzanilla. I would swear that someone replaced my Pulteney with a Gitana or a Solear while I had my back turned. Green walnuts, light curry, seaweed, mild mustard, samphire, crushed slate, albariza (that's Sanlucar's typical chalky soil)... Suddenly, turpentine comes in and shakes everything up, but we really like it. Here is a young and proud distillate! Mouth: we are very close to the official, it's just a bit more disordered, rustic, fermentary... The pepper contends with sea salt and overripe apples, with mustard, and even some notes of pickles in jars. The sea is more on the cliff side than the beach side, if you see what I mean. Also, something that reminds us of laundry powder, but rest assured, we don't eat that every day. Finish: long and much more on lemon zests and chalk, followed by an growing salinity. Comments: well, seriously, it's extremely good too, it's just a bit more rustic, wilder than the official one. In fact, it's very close. I think Pulteney is making a thunderous comeback, but it remains to be seen if this taut style is sufficiently mainstream. But why should it be, after all?