Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Whisky review: Longrow CV

Longrow is the heavily-peated single malt made by the Springbank distillery in Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre. This particular whisky, Longrow CV, is a blend of 6-, 10-, and 14-year-old whiskies aged in a variety of casks (bourbon, sherry, port, and rum). That's why it's called "CV," as in "curriculum vitae" - it's supposed to show off the best this brand of whisky has to offer.

(Also, I've decided to stop giving a description of the appearances of whiskies I review. After coming to the conclusion that most people don't really care what a particular whisky looks like and that a lot of whiskies look almost the same, and also that the color has nothing to do with whether I like a whisky or not, I figured I'd just cut it out and save us all some drudgery.)

Longrow CV, 46% ABV
Single malt Scotch whisky (Campbeltown)

Nose: Peat backed by a lighter grassy note. Medicinal - has a sweet smell like bandage adhesive and iodine. Also getting some faint saltiness.

Palate: Starts out fairly light and grassy and then develops a full peat character that later turns into something dark and chocolatey.

Finish: More dark chocolate, plus some smoke and very dark fruits like overripe strawberries or raisins.

Rating (of 100): 92. Lots of good things going on, and this is a very interesting whisky. The nose tells you the whole story up front: there will be grass. There will be peat. And there might even be more. And then the palate and the finish play out the scenes in dramatic slow motion. There are so many sides to this whisky that it almost seems to have a bit of an identity crisis, but it pulls itself together in the end. It's the Britney Spears of single malt.

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