This old, old whisky (15yo, bottled in the 70s) has Christmas cake, banana bread, toasted almonds, marzipan and pickled walnuts on the nose. It’s also got a glass of water you left by your bed for a few days and arsenic (hopefully not together). People’s hints of sharpies, fermented orange squash and a freshly unpack inner tube disagreed with others’ orange juice, almonds, nettles, mashed bananas and sweet bread. Everyone agreed if you borrow a tent from Russell and you look in the side pocket he’ll have left some socks there. All pretty ‘Pintresting’ (who the hell said that?!).

Dry and sour, sour and oily, sweet and woody, grain-y, oily. Following this? Rescue remedy, white Russian, pine resin, dusty pears, Bahama, Balkans. I hope you’re getting it. Metallic, Brennivín, chilli with E numbers. There’s a void, like sandpaper in your mouth, it’s already got the water. And spicy milk, Russell’s spicy milk sock. You got it.

The positive was almond flour. The rest was diluted whisky, clean, empty, acid reflux and a burst balloon. The finish was minus two.

NB Standard issue Jameson’s 12yo Special Reserve was available for comparison: it was much simpler and sweeter, like boozy tango. One of us felt completely empty.

~£125 (70cl)

The Whisky Exchange: Jameson 15yo (1970s)   |   https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-2870.aspx

We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.

64 / 100