Inchmurrin 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml)

Lochlomond distillery (producer of Inchmurrin) is situated in the village of Alexandria beside the river Leven at the southernmost tip of romantic Loch Lomond, also famous for its world championship golf course. An earlier Lochlomond distillery operated at Arrocher from 1814, but the present distillery was converted in 1966 from a former dye-works. One of its claims to fame is as the favoured malt of comic strip character Capitain Haddock, a friend of Tintin, and the distillery is a favourite destination of Tintin fans.

The distillery draws its water from deep below Loch Lomond, and uses malted barley with varying degrees of peating. This unique combination of malt and grain stills allows Loch Lomond to produce eight malt whiskies with different degrees of peating, and also a "single blend" whisky, or a blend of malt and grain whiskies that originate from the same distillery. It has its own cooperage where the oak barrels used for maturation are crafted, repaired and re-charred. Loch Lomond whiskies (malt and grain) are thus produced, matured and blended at the distillery, one of the few distilleries to manage the whole process from milling to blending. Loch Lomond Single Highland Malt whisky is available with no age statement and as Inchmurrin and Old Rhosdhu malt whiskies, Inchmurrin being the most peaty. Jim Murray once described it as " Hardly glorious but unlike any other single malt around with an astonishing array of flavours and mood changes.

This is the new 46% ABV release. The distillery notes say to suggest "...Seville orange citrus notes before softer fruits of peach and apricot, creamy fudge and vanilla."

Other reviews...Matured in a mixture of bourbon, refill, and recharred casks. Ripe peaches, malt, and vanilla on the nose, with a hint of linseed oil. Oily on the palate, with more peaches, plus quite dark spices, backed by creamy vanilla. Medium in length, spicy, with emerging dry oak notes.
82 points - www.maltadvocate.com (Spring 2016) Reviewed by: Gavin Smith. Non-chill filtered. 46% Alc./Vol.