The Toshan Man

Next to the Old Particular range, Douglas Laing also releases exceptional and old casks in their so called XOP-range. XOP is the acronym for Extra Old Particular. I previously tried an fantastic Littlemill and Mortlach, but now my beloved Auchentoshan comes along. It matured on a refill barrel for three decades.

Lovely full and sweet nose on vanilla, marshmallows, white chocolate and green herbs. A light sour touch from dried pineapple. Overripe yellow plums. Peel of green banana. Baking spices. Quite some oak, without being oaky. Grain wood. Rather piquant. It does turn very floral very quickly. Perfumy, in fact. I hope this will not ruin the palate.

It is round and oily, piquant and spicy on honey and dried pineapple (again), but it also has a floral side that balances dangerously on the edge of perfume. Ah, a distillate from 1984, that explains it. It was a risk, to be sure, but luckily it does not turn overly soapy. But it does remain very floral.

The finish is the best part of this whisky – wonderfully long on caramelized orange peel, milk chocolate and purple candy at the death.

The year 1984 confirms itself as a difficult one for my beloved Lowlander. It is the year in which the distillation regime was much too fast with the known results. 415 EUR for a bottle of this stuff is obviously not cheap. For that kind of money, I would rather by a couple of bottles from the vintage 1992, which is a top year for Toshan. Even George Orwell would not like this one, I think.