Whisky Review: Rare Malts Selection Teaninich 1973 Aged 23 Years

Style: Spicy and Fruity

Nose:
Woah! Spice striking at a rather ferocious velocity and amplitude, well, that’s Rare Malts for you. A little bit of heathery up front, tropical fruits, honey mead and green leaves emerge as the heat wave subsides. White chocolate, soft hint of Jasmine flowers and sweet cranberries compote (perhaps a result of OBE) forming a waxy, luscious core. A pinch of five spices, white oak shavings, peppermint garnished on top of a gentle cereal malt. Pretty good, but perhaps some water might be needed to tame this dram.

Palate:
Powerful chilli spice cuts a searing path, with maximum flavours of apricots yoghurt, creamy white chocolate and steaming Sakura green tea flowing through the red-hot trails. Wood smoke plus a hint of vegetal peat (maybe?) gelled together by tropical fruits agar agar and paraffin wax. Lemon-orange citrus and Kensington mangoes slowly unravel as the spirit begins to shine. Fennel, asparagus and mint dressed on top of barley and malt.

Finish:
Sakura-matcha flavoured Kit-kat, dried apricots and red cranberries rolling around. Aloe vera jelly with minimal oak to finish.

Thoughts:
For whatever reason, it seems the Rare Malts selection tends to be very spicy regardless of its abv. When I turn the bottle around and look at the back label, it reads, “To enjoy this… at its best, measure one-part whisky to two parts still water at room temperature.” Ha! Guess I am doing it wrong all along. Back to this dram, once you adapt to its intensity, the handsome reward is an incredibly rich, creamy texture that you can almost die for. Together with the bountiful flavours and reasonably complex layerings, for a cask-strength drinker like me, it is a rather exquisite dram.