 SMWS G10.2 Strathclyde 35yo  
Strathclyde Distillery - Gorbals, Glasgow |
Paint a picture...
It's 1923. A cornfield towers over your young shoulders as you run gayly in the summer sun, full of willful abandon. As you run through the tall stems, you trip and fall, grazing your knee. It's got a sting to it, but you decide to milk it for all it's worth.
Entering the house, you 'act brave' and get elastoplasts, sweet tea and sticky toffee pudding as a reward. It's nice, but you feel a bit guilty at the inbalance between what's given and what's deserved.
Come on now, what are the key flavours?
Smells creamy yet tingly on the nasal hairs. Hot spiced apple drink, Sweet tea, sticky toffee pudding, quite corny. Harder to get into and more subtle than many grainy noses but rich once it arrives. Tastes of Coca-Cola, curried egg, popcorn (perhaps mroe common as a nosing), plum jam, TCP, elastoplasts, an empty cheese packet, zingy. A grain that gets creamy and rich on the finish, without fasing to spice!
Seriously though, any good?
It takes time to appreciate this. It's got a nice, pretty well-balanced richness but it doesn't give much away even when you've stuck your nose right in the glass. It's pleasant on the tongue, with enjoyable complexity but too zingy without standing out amongst its peers. Other than a creamier finish than its younger brother, the SMWS G10.1, the age didn't show up that noticeably nor add much to the mix.
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Tasted on: 23/06/13
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  A lovely rich colour accompanied this but not quite a golden oldie. |
In summary:
Doesn't do enough to deserve its price tag, even if it is a pretty old beast. Strathclydes tend to have a nice sweet richness and this follows suit but in a more restrained way than you'd hope - not really a refined older gent, but a middle-aged singleton. It does show how ageing can remove the over-spiciness on the finish though, which is a good sign for other bottlings.