The Lost Distilleries Blend (Batch 4)

Master of Malt must be the king of creative bottling. Leftovers, distillation experiments, rebottlings… they’ll pop a label on it and hit the market.

The Lost Distilleries Blend is a blended whisky exclusively made up of whiskies from distilleries that have sadly closed over the years. In this case Rosebank, Littlemill, Imperial, Mosstowie, Glen Keith and Port Ellen, with a splash of Port Dundas grain.

Batch 4 is the lightest in colour so far. It recently captured the ‘Best Blended Whisky’ award at the 2014 World Whiskies Awards – an award that is won by a Suntory Hibiki blend more often than not. What I don’t understand, is that it won ‘Best Blended Whisky’ while there’s also a specific category for blended malts, and this is supposed to be a blended malt. Update: it includes Port Dundas.

The Lost Distilleries Blend
(50,9%, Master of Malt 2014, 97 btl.)

Nose: starts quite fruity, mostly garden fruits but with a faint tropical edge that comes and goes. Vanilla pods. Then there’s an unmistakable hint of Port Ellen – mineral notes, hints of plaster and leather. Quite some lemon notes as well – not surprising with these components.

Mouth: just as elegant as the nose. The minerals are still there but the whole is very creamy as well. Sweet, juicy flavours. Apples, faint hints of guava. Very subtle peat in the background. Almond paste. Some exotic woods and soft pepper. A very nice combination of styles, with both austere elements and luscious roundness.

Finish: long, warming, with plenty of sweetness (brown sugar), baked apple and very light smoke.

Around € 420. For what’s essentially a NAS blended whisky, that’s quite heavy considering Port Ellen and Rosebank are the only whiskies that you can’t find as a single malt for less than € 200 a bottle. But the quality is very high and the elegance quite stunning.

Score: 91/100