I have had mixed experiences with Rosebank over the years: highs and lows. My expectations coming into this young malt from the early 90s were not very high, despite the romance of the ghost distillery. I initially enjoyed this as part of our online whisky group’s 2024 Holiday Advent calendar.

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Whisky: Rosebank 9 Year (1992), The Secret Treasures of Scotland Cask 1463

Country/Region: Scotland/Lowland

ABV: 44%

Cask: Oak

Age: 9 Years (Distilled 25 March 1992, Bottled Feb. 2002)

Notes: Mellow and fruity with honey and herbal chamomile tea— the aroma was high tea served in a lawn and garden center, or maybe a tea room with one too many plants. Clay pots, dry soil, and green vegetation with mild florals filtered in the background with hessian and burlap sacks. Light-bodied, rich honey provided a sweet road to malty pastries, dried fruits, honey donuts and marzipan cookies, and mellow notions of the lawn and garden center.  More clay pots, potting soil, and rubber hoses on a hot day combined with lime leaves, lemons, and something vegetal I could never quite put my finger on.  Gentle and sweet with a touch of hessian and paper at the end.  The finish was medium-length with honey, paper, fruit skins, and oak.

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Score: 7 (82)

Mental Image: Garden and Lawn Center Tea Service

Narrative & Notes: Easy and uncomplicated— I would absolutely crush this bottle if I had the entire thing to myself.  Had I not helped organize the advent calendar and instead tasted this blind, I imagine I would have thought this was an Arran with its gentle malty sweetness and earthy qualities, perhaps also picking up some of those fruits and vegetal notes as being slightly tropical. I would never have even thought to guess this was Rosebank.

Overall, I had few expectations coming into this whisky— it was young, low abv, and I have never been particularly taken by any 1990s Rosebank.  Yet, this was wildly enjoyable for it was and an ideal sipper at the end of a long day.  If only it wasn’t a single cask from an expensive ghost distillery, sadly it was.