Whisky: Glen Mhor 8 Year, Gordon & MacPhail

Country/Region: Scotland/Highland

ABV: 40%

Cask: Oak

Age: 8 Years

Nose: Motor oil and engine grease, new leather, orchard fruits and apple sauce, rust and subtle metallic notes, hints of roasted sesame and celery seed.

Palate: Light-bodied, industrial with orchard fruit, tobacco, leather, motor oil, metallic, fish oil, coffee.

Finish: Medium to short, mellow, orchard fruit, wood, and earth.

Score: 6

Mental Image: Appleseed’s Old Paint Cans

Narrative & Notes: The aroma was squarely in the car garage with dirty, greasy shop rags, used motor oil, engine grease, formaldehyde, rusted paint cans, copper, and hints of car exhaust. Accompanying the industrial notes were subtle orchard fruits, primarily red apple, apple sauce, cracked black pepper, roasted sesame, celery seeds, and stale coffee. Light-bodied, the flavor profile reprised similar garage and industrial notes with more assertive apple, cucumber, and tobacco. New leather combined with greasy shop rags, industrial lubricant, motor oil, and metallic hints of copper and iron. Sweeter notions of tobacco and apple developed with hints of fish oil, pears, pepper, cucumbers, and slightly metallic coffee. Medium to short and mellow, the finish featured orchard fruit, weathered wood, and earth.

The Glen Mhor Distillery, not pronounced at all how you might expect (closer to vor than more), shuttered in 1983 as the Whisky Loch deepened. At the time, whisky producers, including large conglomerates like Distillers Limited (DLC, the forerunner to Diageo), realized they were sitting on a massive inventory of maturing whisky in a rapidly deteriorating market and weakening economy. A few years after production ceased, the distillery was demolished, and the land redeveloped.

While the distillery had some history of selling single malts, it was, like most distilleries, primarily engaged in production for the blending trade. Fortunately for those who “gotta catch them all,” several of the older and well-established independent bottlers, think Laing Brothers and Gordon & MacPhail, acquired a fair bit of stock from the distillery when it was open. Until not long after it shut down, Gordon & MacPhail regularly released batches of Glen Mhor 8 Year, though those are long gone, and now there are few releases, period.

Overall, if this were not a collector’s item at this point, I would absolutely stock up on this malt and enjoy it. The flavors were decidedly and occasionally even a tad oceanic with just a bit of retrained orchard fruit sweetness. I am not sure many of these notes sound good by themselves, but in combination and at the right intensity level, they scratch an itch that few contemporary malts do.

Image Credit: Whisky Auctioneer