Tasting notes by Serge Valentin: 88/100 (www.whiskyfun.com)

Colour: straw.

Nose: as fresh, clean and fruity as these Lochsides can be, although I wouldn’t say this one is as much a fruitbomb as some other versions. It’s still a tad mashy despite its 28 years of age but the rest is superb, with quite some tangerines, apples, hints of Muscat grapes and quite some vanilla. It might need water to unfold more than that. With water: ah yes, that worked. Litres of lemon and lime juice, grapefruit and something a little metallic that adds an extra-dimension. ‘Aluminium pan’. Quite some menthol too.

Mouth (neat): very punchy and much fruitier than on the nose. Grapefruit juice at cask strength, now typically Lochside. Passion fruits, lemon... With water: more of the same plus a little grass, chlorophyll gum, spearmint…

Finish: long but more on grass and chlorophyll and less on lemon and other citrus fruits.

Comments: an excellent, rather grassy Lochside, not as magnificent as the 1965s or 1966s of course but well worth trying. Old skool malt whisky at its best