Whisky : Stuart’s Old Rare 10 Year Blended Scotch (Sherriff’s Bowmore c. 1945)

Country/Region : Scotland/Blend

ABV : 43%

Age : 10 Years

Nose : Creamy, fruity, and fried foods.  Opened with fried bananas, vanilla full cream yogurt, tempura ice cream, and unfrosted vanilla cupcakes from a box mix.  Long faded hints of smoke, salted fish, and cocoa powder.  Tiramisu comes to mind with sweet cream, malty pastry, and subtle chocolate-coffee. 

Palate : Light and fleeting with notes of vanilla, cream, and tapioca pudding.  There was a mild sweetness  and a strange note of unflavored gummy candies or unflavored gelatin.  Hint of smoke like blown out birthday candles along with vanilla cake, dehydrated ice cream, and stale powdered donuts.  Sweet cream, milky vending machine latte, and tapioca pudding came near the end.

Finish : Short and sweet with cream and powdered donuts.

Score : 0

Mental Image : VHS Tape Labeled “Birthday 1994”

Notes : If it was disappointing not seeing a score for this, go ahead and pencil in a “7” as this was unique and strangely tasty.  There was surprisingly complexity in this old blended scotch, it had a unique and strangely tasty profile, though after the decades, the flavors were somewhat washed out and very subdued.  That was not totally unexpected with a bottle so old which was part of the reason I did not give it a proper score.  The other reason was the unattainable nature of a really old bottle— it was only through a bit of luck that I was able to try a pour and I have never seen another Stuart’s Old Rare from the very brief time the label must have been under the Sherriff’s Bowmore portfolio.  There seemed little point in scoring something that I will never have again and which none of us can reasonably expect to see come up at auction.

As this was something of a ‘unicorn bottle,’ I leapt at the chance to give it a try.  I am a historian and so there is something intensely romantic about touching old things whether they be papers in the archives or tasting a whisky distilled or even bottled long before I was alive.  In my albeit limited experience, old bottles tend to be far more “cool” than they do “good,” and so there is little point in chasing after them or justifying the sometimes high prices when there are so many good whiskies out there and an old bottle has just as much chance to taste like boiled cabbage water as it does whisky.

Overall, this was a fun and not too bad pour to try.  It made for a special dram for the wife and I to enjoy on Election Night 2020 and then again on New Year’s Eve as we counted down to 2021.