Whisky : Cutty Sark Blended Scots Whisky (c. 1960’s)

Country/Region : Scotland/Blend

ABV : 43%

Nose : Sherry funk and a puff of smoke hit the senses first.  Rubber slippers, new shoes, and a bit of sulphur come out along with diesel fumes and sweaty socks.  Salty umami notes come through as dark shoyu along with the starchy-creaminess of roasted plantains and caramelizing sugars.

Palate :  Medium bodied with a mellow profile.  The grilled plantain note on the nose comes through first on the palate along with ashy and earthy notes of a dirt charcoal pit.  Hints of citrus and fruits; orange preserves and melon rind.  Cedar wood and potting soil carry the palate through the Home Depot Garden Center.

Finish :  Light and fruity with some dry menthol.

Score : 7

Mental Image : Shag Carpet.

Something Better : Bowmore 22Y 1997 Distillery Selection (similar sherry notes/shoyu, more fruit/viscosity)

Something Similar : Bladnoch 21Y G&M (similar garden center/orange, lighter body, more floral)

Something Worse : Ardbeg Drum (similar plantain/fruit & char, thinner body, less complexity)

Notes :  A bottle of Cutty Sark from the back of a cabinet— a gift for work done a lifetime ago.  This bottle and a few other treasures were offered up by a gentleman looking to clear out the accumulated goods of a lifetime.  A non-drinker, he never had any use for the bottles of scotch he received as gifts or bonuses.  Dutifully, he put them in the cabinet, where most of them sat for half a century.  He recalled receiving most of them in the 1960s and while most of his little collection was auctioned off, a few bottles were kept back as a thanks for helping him out.

the gentleman remembered.  I did bid on a few of them, but did not manage to win anything.  So I was more than happy when this bottle came out at a recent Birthday Bash Tasting Event— a bottle three times older than the Birthday boy.  In fact, considering this was bottled in the early 60’s, the component whiskies were distilled in the 1950’s & 40’s with the possibility some even older.  This was the age of the blended scotch, when premium casks were employed to make Cutty Sark or Johnnie Walker.  There were very few of the single malts or single casks we chase after today— rather the focus of the industry was on blends that could be more than the sum of their parts.

Lucky for us, this bottle was well sealed with a good fill level.  I do think some of the funkier notes on the nose are the result of  this bottle sitting in a cabinet and exposed to tropical heat over the course of 50 years.  The overall palate was quite good— there was a lot more complexity than I expected.  It would have been fun to compare this with a modern Cutty Sark, but we blind tasted the bottle and only one person knew what it was (though I had my suspicion).  A fun bottle and quite the Birthday treat!