Port Askaig 45 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml)

Distilled in 1968, this is the high point in the Port Askaig range, part of an outturn of just 51 bottles from a marriage of five sherry butts bottled at a frail cask strength of 40.8%. According to the creators, it's in an Islay style almost completely lost today: Fruit driven, with next to no smoke and with an abundance of tropical fruits such as mangoes and papayas... Rumour has it that the source is Islay’s northernmost distillery (so it's starting to sound a lot like Bunnahabhain at its finest). Regardless, a very, very rare whisky with a venerable age statement that remains reasonably priced in relation to many Highland equivalents. One only available.

Other reviews... Even in my scarily long career, Ican probably count the number of peated malts that made it to this kind of age and then into a commercial bottling on one hand. Certainly by the end it is showing every year that has passed, but for an unexpected period, the malt hangs together... sometimes surprisingly deliciously. 90.5 points - Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2022

...Well, there was a 45 yo at the very same strength back in 2014, not too sure whether this is the same juice or not. Maybe it is. Colour: full gold. Nose: right, this is one of those magnificent old Bunnahabhains! How many of them have we tried straight from the casks back then, in the company of dear John MacLellan? All roasted nuts covered with eucalyptus essence and Vicks Vaporub at first, then rich plums, light limoncello, and certainly some passion fruits. Soft and complex, with also more and more fir honeydew. Impeccably fresh. Mouth: you feel the age a little more (mentholated molecules from the wood, possibly terpens, turpentine and stuff), but the freshness remains there, with some orange-flavoured praline, tangerine liqueur, heather honey, and assorted dried fruits although it would never quite get raisiny. Finish: unexpectedly long, with the same orange-y fruitiness and touches of cardamom and cinnamon. Crystalised angelica and more yellow chartreuse in the aftertaste, and rather less oak than in the ‘bottling of 2014’. Which, I agree, is a little strange. Comments: it is, indeed, a little chartreuse-y. If it is the same juice as that of 2014, it may have improved a little bit, as if it could breathe a little further. 91 points - whiskyfun.com