Rosebank 20 Years Old Rare Malts Selection 62.3% 1981

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (88)

Colour: straw.

Nose: ouch! A high-octane malt, with a little lemon indeed but so strong that you can’t really nose it just like that, unless you want to ‘suicide your nostrils’. So, with water (at roughly 45%): lots of lemon indeed (including rubbed zests), fresh mint, moss and fern just like in the Daily Dram, a little paraffin and lamp petrol, wet stones… There’s also a little apple juice, beeswax, heather honey… Quite austere and a little ‘rigid’ but very elegant. Excellent but maybe not for everyone.

Mouth (neat): more drinkable than noseable at such high strength, very lemony, but let’s not play with our palate. With water: yes, it’s excellent, very elegant, very close to the Daily Dram now. Maybe a little spicier, with more pepper, and certainly less ‘tropically fruity’.

Great, long finish, on lemon and high-end green tea, with quite some pepper.
Another excellent Rosebank.

Words of Whisky (91)

:

Nose: A whiff of lemon, floral honey, biscuits and cookie dough, but otherwise very closed, which I’m sure can be remedied by adding some water. Quite heathery now, as well as citrus and mint tea, but also a whisper of smoke. There’s some minerality too. Ozone.
Taste: Intensely malty, a tinge of charred oak and some hessian. Very creamy, big on the vanilla too. Yet it is subtle and rather well-behaved. It could do with some water though, which brings out menthol, charred lemon peel, subtle pineapple and a touch of peat.
Finish: Chalk, menthol and yellow fruit.

Highly fascinating and very intriguing, I can’t imagine I’ll ever tire of this Rosebank. It’s also unlike anything currently on the market. Hopefully the Rosebank resurrection works out. Thanks so much for sharing, Norbert!

BOW (91)