An old sample from the Malt Maniacs Awards that I was still having. Frankly, they usually don’t keep that long, decanting your best bottles into some wee 5 or 10cls mini-bottles is not a good idea if your aim is to keep them for years. Whisky’s more fragile than you think and plastics, all of them, are your worst enemies. Never, ever believe makers or merchants’ websites. Colour: amber. Nose: I’ve kept this one in my glass for a good one hour so that it could breathe. With success I have to say, these grassy raisins and figs being of erstwhile quality. Sweet mushroom sauce. Glenfarclas 1956 Family Casks Cask #2355

With water: some paraffin – tsk tsk, that’s the old sample. Paraffin is good when it’s integrated, it’s a bad sign when it literally ‘covers’ everything. Mouth (neat): thick walnut wine, chestnut liqueur, plus some gravy and some oloroso from a good house. With water: Seville oranges and meaty liqueurs, but this paraffin gives it away: it’s wrecked to some extend. Finish: forget. Comments: it’s got some wonderful afterglows and stuff, but it’s wrecked. What’s great is that those flaws are extremely easy to detect. Having said that, keeping such a sample for more than ten ears is a terrible idea in the first place, unless you’ve cryogenised it. Now, cold kills oils