A bag of Longmorn, randomly, Part Drei


January 10, 2025

A bag of Longmorn, randomly, Part Drei

Let’s taste another five or six, some recent and some older ones, if you don’t mind.

Bertanne apple (Pour de Bon)

Longmorn 22 yo 1988/2011 (46%, Mo Òr Collection, release 44, bourbon hogshead, cask #14378, 411 bottles)

What an incredible collection—housing all the Scottish distilleries, even the rarest ones like Ladyburn. I think they were just a little ahead of their time in 2011. Colour: straw. Nose: this one is superbly fresh and citric, bursting with all sorts of yellow citrus fruits, then shifting towards freshly cut grass, a touch of fresh mint and rhubarb, and finally tiny hints of vanilla pods. Magnificent purity. Mouth: powerful for its pedigree, leaning more towards exotic fruits—banana and guava—then mead and a touch of liquorice before becoming slightly more herbal and bitter. As is often the case, 46% works very well. Finish: long and frankly herbal by this stage, with roasted aubergines appearing in the aftertaste. Comments: on your palate it may have lost a bit of its citrus delicacy over time, but it remains excellent. And did you notice we haven’t mentioned apples?
SGP:561 - 87 points.

Longmorn 28 yo 1996/2024 (58.8%, The Antelope Macau & Kanpaikai Japan, refill hogshead, cask #17388, 196 bottles)

What a fun label—cats now seem to reign supreme on whisky bottles for the Far East, much like they rule at Château WF, for that matter. They even appear to be toppling the dragons Bowmore introduced back in the 1990s, during the era of their famous 30-year-old ‘Sea Dragon’. Colour: deep gold. Nose: well, this is perfect—worthy of purring with delight (S.!). Superb citrus notes, fresh or in marmalade form, plus crème de menthe and countless tiny aromatic herbs, always around mint but also basil and coriander. Ever tried basil ice cream? Then come kumquats and bergamots. Utterly flawless and feline (!) in elegance. With water: and here come the mineral and saline notes. Mouth (neat): like a grand old white wine of great age. Truly extraordinary—honestly, 101% my preferred style. Please call the Anti-Maltoporn Brigade! With water: this now heads towards fruity old cognacs—it’s incredible. Honey, vineyard peaches, candied violets, liquorice… Have you called the A.M.B. yet? Finish: blindfolded, one might genuinely mistake this for an old cognac from a small, prestigious house, like the ones we often discuss here. Comments: truly sublime.
SGP:651 - 92 points.

Longmorn 23 yo 1992/2015 (52.1%, Single Cask Collection, bourbon hogshead, cask #71757, 257 bottles)

Here we are in Austria, with great pleasure. We’ve already tasted several exceptional whiskies from the Single Cask Collection of Wels, near Linz. And indeed, the thought of Linzertorte is now firmly lodged in my mind—a real ‘palateworm’... Colour: full gold. Nose: rather sharp, starting with cider apples and a touch of varnish, then unfolding into apples, pears, plums, cherries, and gooseberries. Very typical of Longmorn in its most natural state. With water: as usual, chalk, ground barley, and fresh bread emerge. Impeccably natural. Mouth (neat): no Linzertorte. I repeat, no Linzertorte. Instead, vibrant apples, melons, pears, then a touch of green pepper mixed with honey (why not?). With water: little change, except for more lemon. Finish: long, becoming more herbal and peppery, with barley syrup in the aftertaste. Comments: a fine beast, all natural.
SGP:561 - 87 points.

Longmorn 11 yo 2008/2020 (56.6%, Boogieman Import for The Longmorn Bros., bourbon barrel)

We know the Longmorn Brothers—they’re great people (guys, you owe me the aperitif next time). Colour: white wine. Nose: perfect! Fresh almonds, parsley, apples, mirabelles, quinces, and a touch of damp earth. Amusing hints of fruity shampoo (apple!). With water: fresh rhubarb and small windfall apples. Mouth (neat): very good, fresh and tense, on white, yellow, and green fruits, with increasingly more pepper. With water: the addition of water triggers an avalanche of fruit drops in various flavours, including plenty of lemon drops. Finish: long, more herbal. Apple peelings and honey in the aftertaste. Comments: as good as a natural 11-year-old Longmorn can be.
SGP:651 - 87 points.

What a distillery, though! Speaking of the Longmorn Bros., it’s worth knowing that twenty or thirty years ago—or even earlier—whisky enthusiasts often had the habit of picking their ‘favourite’ distillery, then collecting its bottles and artefacts and building up knowledge that sometimes even the brands themselves didn’t possess. That didn’t stop them from gathering other whiskies, of course, but ultimately, if you wanted reliable information about a particular distillery, you’d turn to these friends rather than some of the distillers themselves, who already tended – but not all of them - to dish out a fair amount of ‘corporate talk’—not always the most interesting. That said, there were always exceptions indeed, and it also depended on whom you spoke to within the companies. Generally speaking, the lower someone ranked in the organisations, the more reliable the information was—ha! But since then, everyone’s attended seminars on “what to say and what not to say,” and corporate talk now tends, at many places, to trickle all the way down—even to students working as tour guides, gardeners, or cleaning staff.
Regarding collectors who were fans of a particular distillery – usually completists – most of them stopped their collections, even the whales, because, around the 2010s, they found themselves essentially held hostage by brands. Indeed these brands had started releasing more and more limited editions at completely unjustifiable prices. Most of these private collections were later sold off, sometimes even back to the brands themselves.

Careful, we’re about to go back through the vintages…

Longmorn 1976/2013 (53.7%, Malts of Scotland, bourbon hogshead, Cask #MoS 13029, 143 bottles)

I’m not sure why I hadn’t tasted this very attractive baby before now. Colour: gold. Nose: the vanilla from the American oak is quite prominent at first, with crème brûlée, vanilla cream, and custard (we get it, S.), then hints of pinewood, cooked yellow fruits of all kinds, and finally some rum-like notes and exotic fruits, especially ripe bananas. With water: apple and banana juice, 50/50. Now there’s an idea! Just add rum—or Longmorn. Mouth (neat): great power with rather prominent woodiness, but it stays on pine buds, cherry sap, or maple syrup. Orchard fruits then make their way through without much trouble, particularly all sorts of apples, as usual. With water: it handles those slightly resinous and very, very faintly dusty notes rather with gusto. Thirty-six or thirty-seven years old, mind you. Finish: medium length, with tea, grey pepper, wood, and grassy juice. Comments: perhaps just a touch fragile due to age, but the DNA remains superb.
SGP:451 - 87 points.

Longmorn 28 yo 1971/2000 (57.9%, Vintage Hallmark of St. James’s, USA, sherry cask)

A bottle with quite the reputation, it must be said. The bottles from the defunct Hallmark of St. James’s were known for featuring tasting notes by Wallace Milroy of Milroy's of Soho, also one of the true legends of whisky writing. Colour: copper amber. Nose: oh! Roasted chestnuts, morels, truffles, clootie dumpling, butterscotch, fine coffee, wood varnish, a hundred different dried fruits, and the most sumptuous waxes. I think it’s perfect—on par with the greatest Macallans of their golden era (and don’t talk to me about paxarette or brandy!). With water: pata negra ham and prunes in Armagnac. Mouth (neat): thunderbolts and lightning—what a marvel! A massive arrival, almost intrusive, like Schwarzenegger, followed by a machine gun of flavours firing the most wonderful dried fruits, chocolates, coffees, tobaccos, and woody spices (cinnamon, tea, light smoke/toast…). Basically, you’re dead. Well, your taste buds and olfactory bulb are practically dead. With water: boom—absolute marvel. I’m done for. Finish: … Comments: …
SGP:652 - 95 points.

We should probably stop here, but this is Whiskyfun, and we’d still like to go all the way back to the 1960s and revisit this baby that I had tried a little quickly back in 2008...

Longmorn 31 yo 1969/2001 (45.65%, Douglas Laing, Old Malt Cask, 210 bottles)

Colour: full gold. Nose: we start with fresher fruits, jams, liqueurs, and syrups, but you can immediately tell this is, yet again, a cask of interstellar quality. Gradually, dried fruits take over—first dates (and what a beauty they are!), then figs, and finally raisins of all kinds. Add a touch of earth, tobacco, and a fresh mint leaf, and you have yet another absolutely definitive nose. You don’t find this sort of profile in recent releases anymore—and let’s not even mention those old casks reconditioned with very active wood or wine, a rather regrettable trend, frankly. With water: was Mozart a distiller too? Exceptional tiny meaty notes—dry hams, Chinese sauces, subtle fermentations... Mouth (neat): very, very slightly more fragile and less structured than the Vintage Hallmark, but still sitting firmly in the upper floors of malt whisky. Mind you, we’re practically on the rooftop. Fruit sauce, Christmas cake, old Madeira... With water: very, very, very faint dustiness, but the rest is exceptional, with little dried figs and dried white mulberries standing tall. Finish: more like an old sweet wine. Comments: following the Vintage Hallmark is no small feat, but this one manages it. Another exceptional bottle which, moreover, seems to have greatly benefited from an additional 16 or 17 years in the bottle since we last tried it (fom another bottle, naturally).
SGP:651 - 93 points.

I think we won’t revisit Longmorn for a few months, but you never know.

(Mille mercis Andy and Michiel - and Edward)

Check the index of all Longmorn we've tasted so far