Loch Lomond Distillery has never been one to seek glamour and fame enjoyed by the likes of Lagavulin or The Macallan. At a time when blended whisky was profitable, its former owners set up Loch Lomond to be a “workhorse distillery” intended to be self-sufficient. While most Scotch companies had to exchange casks from different distilleries to create their own blends, Loch Lomond’s owners chose to go at it entirely by themselves.

The owners ambition made Loch Lomond arguably the most versatile distillery in Scotland: the distillery houses three different types of copper stills: (1) traditional pot stills, (2) coffey stills for continuous distillation and (3) configurable pot stills with rectifying plates at their necks known as “Lomond stills”.

While Loch Lomond hasn’t quite reached the heights of fame enough to appear in James Bond movies, popular culture isn’t alien to the brand. “Loch Lomond Whisky” appeared in The Adventures of Tintin as a Scotch whisky that both Captain Haddock and Tintin’s dog, Snowy, enjoyed.

Mysteriously, “Loch Lomond Whisky” appeared first in fiction before in real life. The brand first showed up in The Black Island volume of the Tintin comics which was published in 1937. The real Loch Lomond Distillery was built a good 27 years later in 1964.

Before we go down the rabbit hole of tinfoil hats and conspiracy theories, “Loch Lomond” is in fact a real lake in South Scotland known to many as the largest lake in the UK. So, with that context in mind, it was entirely conceivable for a Scotch company to appropriate for itself the name of the largest loch in the kingdom. The Belgian author of Tintin was a genius. Or perhaps the founders of Loch Lomond Distillery in 1964 were really into reading Tintin comics themselves.

Given the versatility of the distillery, its various stills have the capacity of produce 11 different distillates with different characters for its various whisky brands. The Old Rhosdhu Single Malt (which I would be tasting one today) is one of the many styles of whisky produced by Loch Lomond since inception in the 1960s. This style is unfortunately discontinued in 2000, so its cause for rarity in the market is somewhat similar to bottles from mothballed distilleries.

I was lucky to be given a sample of a truly Old Rhosdhu released by Singaporean independent bottler Animal Spirits at this year’s The Malt Affair event. This Old Rhosdhu had been distilled in Loch Lomond in 1990 then bottled in 2020, and comes up to a ripe 29 years old. It was matured in a hogshead – most likely a refill hogshead – and bottled at 47.3% ABV.

Let’s give this a taste!

Old Rhosdhu 1990 bottled by Animal Spirits, distilled at Loch Lomond Distillery, 47.3% ABV – Review

Colour: Old medallion.

Nose: Fresh, rich and wonderfully lush with a mixture of vanilla and warm honey. On the first nose there are bright blossoming notes of candy floss and a creaminess reminiscent of banana pudding.

Allowed to breathe, the aromas further expand in depth, revealing more layered notes of malted milk, toasted cereals and roasted pecan nuts. Fresh cream, a bit of farmy notes are also present in the form of dried hay.

This is memorably vibrant, with sweet honey and pleasantly balanced woodiness of a woodworking workshop. The notes are lavish but aromas gentle to the nose without a hint of an alcoholic prick.

Palate: Densely flavoured with a pleasing oily texture.

Quite a bit of depth as suggested by the nose; immediately abundant with cinnamon spice, mildly sweet vanilla and layers upon layers of thick runny honey coating the tongue with a substantial mouthfeel. A touch of juicy honeydew and honeyed ginger tea.

Great deal of gentle honeyed sweetness and alcoholic warmth with no acidity or dry woodiness whatsoever. Then there are some cereal notes on the back palate that develop into oven-baked puff pastry and warm stewed applies, reminding me of the warm familiar embrace of a McDonalds’ Apple Pie.

Finally, adding a splash of water seems to reveal a somewhat oily, meaty character here too – the sort you might expect from a Springbank or Craigellachie (think salty and oily slices of prosciutto ham).

This is pleasantly forthcoming with a gentle warmth, layered honey and a noticeable spice of oak.

Finish: Very long and marked by mildly savoury notes of toasted coconut, vanilla ice cream and once again fresh bananas. It just keeps on going. Only a hint of wood mustiness before leaving the tongue with the zing of candied ginger.

My thoughts

Wow, this is undeniably delicious. This is complex, flavoursome with a thick and appealing viscosity.

Every cask of whisky has an optimal period of maturation, beyond which they get overly saturated with cask influence or “overoaked”. This splendid dram has found the right Goldilock’s spot along its maturation timeline. I suppose no fancy cask finishings can replace old school maturation in a dependable old hogshead.

@CharsiuCharlie