Longmorn

Whitehouse acquired a selection of private bottlings – like the whiskies we found at Maltings, with the “Rare Malts” labels. Apparently, bottlers purchase small quantities – a couple casks, perhaps even a single cask – from a distiller, and then bottle and sell the whisky under their own trade name, giving credit to the distillery. I picked up a couple bottles of Longmorn, 16 years old, 1987 vintage, packaged by Whisky Galore (an admittedly cheesy trade name). It’s 92 proof, non-chill filtered.

Longmorn was previously unknown to me. It’s a Speyside malt. Michael Jackson (more on Michael in a few moments) says that Longmorn is admired, but not well known. The distillery recently sold to new owners, and there’s hope that the malt will become more available.

The first noticeable trait of this whisky is its light gold color. It hardly looks like something that’s been aged for 16 years. And it has a light fresh taste, comparable to the color. But the taste seems to grow and improve, not only as you hold the whisky on the tongue, but as you work your way down the glass. I’ve always thought it’s a sign of a good malt when, every time you finish a glass, you feel like pouring another, right then. Longmorn has that appeal. And the taste seems to get bigger as the glass goes down. At $35, I’m beginning to think that this whisky was a steal, and that I’ll need to pick up another couple bottles, since Whitehouse has only a couple cases, if that.

In an effort to read up on these private bottlings, I bought G-man’s single malt reference book – the Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch, by Michael Jackson. He didn’t have this particular Longmorn rated, but made reference to over a half-dozen other bottlings, enough to get a sense for what this whisky would taste like. It’s a blast to read, not just to look through all the many malts (over 1000 different bottlings are identified), but also to learn about the history and production of scotch whisky. And because Jackson rates all the whisky, it’s also fun to see how your tastes stack up to his. For example, he shares our high opinion of Lagavullin, Talisker and Highland Park, but not Bruichladdich. Why not, I can’t really say. In any event, an important addition to the library.