The Toshan Man

It’s not that easy to find a Signatory dumpy these days, let alone at an affordable price. But I was able to put my hands on this 20 years old Auchentoshan. 1984, however, is a year that is the equivalent of ‘perfume’ for my beloved Lowland distillery. Let us see if this pale Toshan suffered from that as well. I hope not.

Lovely sweet and floral nose, but this certainly is not FWP. A hint of violets in the background, but mostly yellow fruit, toffee and freshly cut grass and grain. I even get some peach and cashew nuts. Could this have been a sherry cask? The label simply states ‘an oak cask’, so that does not tell us much. But it is very good, that’s for sure!

Wonderfully creamy and sweet on the palate. No bite despite the high ABV. Sweet and sour on agrums, citrus and lots of grasses. The floral element reappears, but this works fine and is not an offnote at all. Au contraire. From the second sip on, it is clear that this is quite tasty. Nice!

Lovely long finish that is fairly sweet, but also quite spicy.

A top malt from a contested year of distillation. Lovely. Around 140 EUR at the time, but now more than double in auctions.