Review #: 229
Description: Sovereign North British 1989 25 Year Single Grain
Spirit: Scotch
Background: Another bottle from Hunter Laing’s Sovereign line of single grain whiskies. Distilled in 1989 in the lowland distillery of North British, it was aged 25 years in a single refill bourbon barrel. Bottled in February of 2015 without chillfiltration nor coloring and clocking in at 59.7% abv
Distillery – North British
Bottler – Hunter Laing
Brand – Sovereign
Selection – N/A
ABV – 59.7%
Age – 25 Years
Nose – Strong musty/waxy/sour note (like the previous Cameronbridge grain), little bit of vanilla, lemon oil, burnt bread, mint(?)
Taste – Vanilla, buttercream frosting, lemon curd, (bear with me) smoked gouda
Finish – Oak, pepper, ginger, toasted marshmallow
Score: 6
Would I buy a bottle? No
Thoughts: This had a similar nose to the Cameronbridge but the palate had just a little more to it. And yeah, getting a smoked cheese isn’t what I planned on tasting but I swear there was a light, savory, smokey note in there. It was plenty good, but around $100, I’m going single malt.