Please note the filling level

Please note the filling level

Tasting notes by Serge Valentin (WhiskyFun.com)

Rosebank 20 yo 1981/2002 (62.3%, Rare Malts)

Colour: straw.

Nose: ouch! A high-octane malt, with a little lemon indeed but so strong that you can’t really nose it just like that, unless you want to ‘suicide your nostrils’. So, with water (at roughly 45%): lots of lemon indeed (including rubbed zests), fresh mint, moss and fern just like in the Daily Dram, a little paraffin and lamp petrol, wet stones… There’s also a little apple juice, beeswax, heather honey… Quite austere and a little ‘rigid’ but very elegant. Excellent but maybe not for everyone.

Mouth (neat): more drinkable than noseable at such high strength, very lemony, but let’s not play with our palate. With water: yes, it’s excellent, very elegant, very close to the Daily Dram now. Maybe a little spicier, with more pepper, and certainly less ‘tropically fruity’. Great, long finish, on lemon and high-end green tea, with quite some pepper. Another excellent Rosebank, just a tad less complex than the new Daily Dram.

88 points.