Name: Longmorn 1971 (Spirito DiVino)
Brand: Longmorn
Rating: 4 (2 reviews)

It has been a while… I’ve moved to a new house and my internet provider decided to create an administrative mess. A week without internet, phone or tv. Thanks to everyone who suggested to make it public on Twitter, suddenly it was taken to a higher gear.

Spirito DiVino is a beer and drinks shop in Wevelgem, Belgium. A small shop, but as they wanted to move into whisky, they decided to buy a parcel of Longmorn 1971 and stick their label onto it. It was not a huge success: everyone seemed to agree it was very good, but as a semi-official bottling it was expensive, and the small yield stayed available for a long time. As far as I know the shop didn’t venture another bottling.

Longmorn 1971
(57,3%, OB for Spirito DiVino 2009, 56 btl.)

Nose: starts on apples, apricot jam and fruit tea, with a soft grassy side to it. Citrus, a little mint, sage and wax. There’s also a tropical touch (guava, banana) but less so than most of the 1975/1976 expressions. Fairly high on spices (nutmeg, ginger). Also a faint coastal note. Complex but not the most sexy version.

Mouth: starts on oak spices and herbs, but after this a beautiful wave of fruits comes rushing in: pineapple, tangerine, pink grapefruit, banana and passion fruit. Overall more fresh / citrusy than warm / tropical again (more 1976 than 1975 if you like). Fades on fruit tea and a dryness from the oak.

Finish: long, still citrusy and gingery.

A spicy and slightly oaky Longmorn of high quality. It surely wasn’t cheap at the time (around € 190), but even then it’s remarkable that this didn’t sell like hotcakes at the time. Now they’re gone.

Score: 91/100

4Comments

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1

MARS on 1 February 2013 at 19:10

Back in 2009, it was expensive and not the only longmorn from the 70′ for sale. Indeed, it’s a good whisky but it lacks a little something for being worth these 190€(to me). Of course, based on curent price it seems a little bit cheap but it wasn’t back then.

When you think I paid 110€ for a longmorn G&M 1971/2008(reduced, I admit) that I find better. And it stayed available for 2 years!
2

Yapi on 2 February 2013 at 00:51

Well, for me this is a moment-whisky. Sometimes it’s an 88, 89 one, certainly always good, and sometimes it’s just a 93 whisky, amazing. Very, very moody, but high quality. Indeed, like Mars said, now the price seems very reasonable, but there pretty much out… unless ;-).
3

yapi on 2 February 2013 at 00:53

they are… pretty much out
4

Johan on 2 March 2013 at 23:54

It was bottled in 2009 and it is still available. As a matter of fact, there are still 2 bottles left now but at 219 € .

At first the price was 189 € if I’m not mistaken but it gradually went up. At the time I also thought it was a lot of money but after tasting it I believe it was money well spent.

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