Inverleven (closed 1991)

Bought: English Whisky Company, 28^th July 2015

Ratings:
84.88/100 – Whiskybase (average from 10 member votes)

Bottled in 2010, this Inverleven single malt is 18 or possibly 19 years old. I’ve wanted to upgrade my Inverleven 1979 miniature for a while so when I spotted this bottle for less than £60 in the English Whisky Company’s online shop, I pounced. With the distillery closed in 1991, a full bottle could well be a good investment. I particularly like the seal on this bottle because the integrated ribbon makes it a lot more difficult to fake. It’s a shame more bottlings aren’t produced this way.

Nearly 85/100 on Whiskybase is an above-average score with one voter commenting about this dram “The nose is fruity and fresh. Citrus and vanilla fudge and grassy barley sweetness in the mouth. A long finish, warm, sweet and even a drying spicy.” It certainly sounds lovely but I’ll be keeping this bottle closed for a while. What it allows me to do is to open the miniature and get my first taste experience of the Inverleven distillery.

Here’s Ben of ‘A Dram A Day’ with his review on You Tube (March 2016):

Inverleven 1991 18yo 70cl

Bought – Online Whisky Auction, 22nd December 2013

Ratings:
73/100 – Malt Maniacs (average from 5 reviewers)
76/100 – Whisky Notes Review

It’s a shame that the Inverleven distillery bit the dust in 1991 because there are few enough lowland distilleries on the go as it is! But one distillery lost is another distillery’s gain. The stills that produced my 1979 bottle have been shipped over from Inverleven to Islay, to be part of the rebuild of the Port Charlotte distillery. Until recently, Bruichladdich used the old Port Charlotte buildings as warehouse storage but they’ve decided to breath new life into the old distillery and plan to open in 2016.

I’m tempted to keep this miniature until I get a whisky from the new Port Charlotte distillery. Not that I’ll be able to tell that they both come from the same stills but it would be a nice association. I wonder if blending them together means that the outcome is still a single malt?! I know they are different distilleries but, since they’ll be both from the same stills, it could be argued that, technically, it still constitutes a single malt. Maybe not in the eyes of the Scottish Whisky Association but, after several glasses, everything seems possible! 😉