 Alberta Premium 25yo  
Alberta Distillery - Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
Tastes & Smells
Creamy on the nose, with stewed pears. Tasted blind, but immediately clear to be a grain. Sour in the mouth with a slight zing, and mostly classic grain characteristics, towards the sourer end of the spectrum though. It finished a little lighter, with the top of a lemon drizzle cake.
Graintacular?
I really wasnt a fan of this. Maybe I was placing it in a bad context as I wasnt expecting it to be an old 100% rye whisky, but it didnt have enough richness or variety to entice me. I tasted it blind and thought it was a ~20yo Scottish grain or maybe a 5yo American corn whiskey. When I found it was a rye, it made sense it was the sour end of dry, which is not the end of dry I like to be, but was within the bounds of other ryes Ive had the problem is, they were much younger and much better. Still, this was bought at C$30 (not by myself), so was definitely worth a shot!
Summary & Ramblings
The story of how this was bought on a whim in Canada and stored in a wardrobe to be found later on added a lot to this dram. Also the oldest 100% rye whiskey Im likely to try but Id not buy another bottle of this, even at the original price. Was tasted in a group, and to be fair to it, many liked it a lot more just not to my tastes.
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Tasted on: 11/09/14
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  Unlikely to find another bottle in the UK, me thinks.. |
tldr;
Old 100% rye whiskey bought on the cheap and brought back to the UK. An exciting thing to have tried, but not one Ill look out for again. Memorable story, sour dram.