Laphroaig 19, 1969, Old ship label Bottled by Gordon & MacPhail for Sestante, 40% abv.

This is a pretty famous release from Sestante, usually picking up high hammer prices for being well... vintage and Sestante. There seem to be two stories about Sestante, which both may share some truth. One version says Sestante was a famous Italian cafe owner back in the 60s and 70s who bought his own casks directly from distilleries to bring back to Italy and bottled his releases himself. Another story says Sestante of Parma was an Italian whisky importer founded in 1979 who also had other IBs bottle their stuff, but ceased operations around 1990. In either case, it is generally believed that Sestante was the Italian arm of Gordon & MacPhail. Interestingly, there is another 1969 Sestante bottling but at higher proof!

Nose: cocktail cherries and sour fruits, a slight sour smoke, young tofu, old wet steamed lotus leaves, so far all the elements I dislike. Oh a whiff of young pineapple!

Palate: initial palate has a slight bitterness that I rarely find in fruits, mid palate has a mellow fruit juice which goes down pretty smoothly, wow overall nothing going on. Like juice... very plain juice. WTF happened?

Finish: dry, leaves a powdery mouthfeel, hints of cocktail cherries.

This one was pretty bad actually, weak on many fronts, not much going on, unbalanced. This version is a good example of the thin line between good and bad for this flavor type, and when I say flavor type, I mean the tropical category. To me, it does seem to try to emit that tropical flavor aura, but executes it horribly with only the bad aspects showing up. Thank god I didn't win any auctions with this bottle! Is it me? Is it the bottle? I'll never know. I hate to say it, but this is a horrible bottling. How did it become famous?

Grade: F

Whiskyfun.com, Serge Valentin, sgp:276, 80 points
Malt maniacs, 82 points on 2 reviews

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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