To kick off June’s whisky reviews, here is an older Littlemill. This is another of the many casks of 20+yo Littlemill that were bottled by various indie outfits in the early 2010s, well after the distillery had closed, been demolished and the ground it stood on plowed with sand. Well, the latter only happened in a figurative sense. The distillery closed finally in 1994 and was dismantled in 1997. What was left of it burned down in 2004 and now a housing development stands on the site. As I never get tired of noting, Littlemill had a very negative reputation among whisky aficionados when it was open. The official releases were not very inspiring. But a number of casks that remained in storage were aged into an excellence that the official releases never reached and many of them were released 15 odd years ago. As the whisky market was not insanely overheated at the time, bottles from these casks were available at quite reasonable prices from various indie bottlers (my spreadsheet tells me I paid just about $114 for this one) and I socked a few away. This cask was released by a German outfit named Glen Fahrn. The latest release Whiskybase logs from them was in 2017—I’m not sure if they’re still a going concern. Anyway, I’m glad to have finally opened this bottle a few nights ago. Here now are my notes.

Littlemill 22, 1989 (55.1%; Cask 7; Glen Fahrn; from my own bottle)

Nose: A melange of tropical fruit juice: pineapple, makrut lime, a bit of guava. There’s cut grass (and whiffs of lawnmower exhaust as well) and some bitter lime peel mixed in with the fruit. Sweeter as it sits and more mineral as well. With water the fruit is joined by some floral sweetness at first and then it gets quite custardy.

Palate: Comes in with the grass and mineral notes leading the way but the fruit explodes as I swallow. Very approachable at full strength; good texture. Continues in this general vein; a hint of green banana too now. Water pushes the mineral notes back and emphasizes the sweeter fruit (some berries in there too now).

Finish: Long. The fruit goes on for a while and then yields to the mineral notes, which get mixed in with a little gasoline. As on the palate with time and water.

Comments: Another ace older cask of late 1980s Littlemill. Very glad I bought bottles from some of these casks back in 2011-2012. Alas, I have only a few left now.

Rating: 90 points.