Rosebank 21, 1992, 0465/4530, 55.3% abv.

Matured in refill American oak casks, this is supposedly the third official release from the Lowland Rosebank distillery, which closed in 1993. Rosebank has long been considered a top whisky and sometimes representative of the good aspects of Lowland whisky. Part of Diageo's 2014 Special Releases.

Nose: white wine, green grapes, a light chateau d'yquem.

Palate: sour or a sour effect, light wood similar to old steamed lotus leaves though. After a few sips, the wood elements become more pronounced while the old lotus leaves flavors remain consistently controlled. It also becomes more dry, which I attribute to the abv.

Finish: moderate, abv burn, good amount of wood. After a few sips, the finish gets shorter and shorter, mostly wood elements. I feel the dryness might be accentuating the wood elements.

The nose was very nice, but the flavors were totally unexpected, more towards a typical very lightly sherry cask matured whisky. Quite boring. A little disappointing. Not sure what happened. Had this at Bar Listen, Seoul, South Korea.

Grade: C

Whiskyfun.com, Serge Valentin, sgp:651, 88 points
Whisky advocate, Gavin Smith, 88 point

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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