The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
By Richard Thomas
Rating: A-
Wemyss Pastille Bouquet Single Cask
(Credit: Wemyss Malts)
Speyside is the largest of the scotch whisky regions in terms of its number of distilleries, but even so a handful of names are familiar to scotch-lovers either through their single malts or their prominent role in blends: Ardmore, Glen Elgin, Glenlivet, Macallan, and many more besides. Others are more obscure, and the source distillery for Pastille Bouquet, Mortlach, falls into that category.
Founded in Dufftown in the early 1820s, Mortlach is currently a Diageo property, and accordingly plays an important role in the Johnnie Walker blends. Indeed, Diageo announced a major expansion plan for Mortlach’s production capacity earlier this summer, no doubt with an eye on covering further growth in their Walker expressions.
So one way to look at Pastille Bouquet is as a Wemyss Single Cask take on premium Johnnie Walker, but that is not my take. Frankly, it’s just too good for that, being a yummy, wily scotch that is quite unlike anything I’ve seen out of a Walker bottle.
The Scotch
Pastille Bouquet, in common with the Wemyss Single Cask line, is bottled at 46% abv. The single cask in this instance produced a 325-bottle run, and that cask was distilled in 1998, making this a 15 year old single barrel, single malt scotch. In the glass, the spirit has a fairly standard straw-like coloring.
The name “pastille” refers to a sweet, chewable pill that is sometimes candy and sometimes medicinal, and the name is an apt one. The nose is subtle, with lemon cake and ginger mingling with traces of dry wood. The flavor follows along those lines, offering a dry, peppery wood on top of a spice mixture of strong cinnamon and ginger, plus a silky note of sweetness. The finish leaves a lingering hot cinnamon aftertaste, but paradoxically delivers only light warmth.
The Price
Making Pastille Bouquet an even better package is the price tag, which is on the low end for a Wemyss Single Cask. I’ve seen it listed for as low as £54 (VAT included) with online retailers, which translates into about $85.
