Timorous Beastie 40 YO

Timorous Beastie 40 YO, 54,7 %

Timorous Beastie 40 YO

About five weeks ago the independent bottler Douglas Laing & Co. unveiled the Timorous Beastie 40 Years Old Limited Edition Highland Malt Scotch Whisky. This is a limited release of just 1080 bottles, bottled at a natural cask strength of 54.7%. The standard edition of this Highland blended malt (vatted malt) Timorous Beastie was launched as a part of their Remarkable Regional Malts series in 2014 (see review here). The exact make up of this blended malt is of course not revealed, but we know it contains whisky from Glengoyne, Dalmore, Glen Garioch and probably many more.

Commenting on the Remarkable Regional Malts’ latest innovation, Cara Laing, Director of Whisky, said:

After 40 long years of maturation, we truly believe that this refined, complex dram is a masterpiece of exceptional quality – a super-charged edition of our much-loved Timorous Beastie!

Douglas Laing arranged an online competition, where a 100 taster bottles of the Timorous Beastie 40 YO was given away with consumers being invited to submit their own tasting notes. I was lucky enough to be one of these 100, and I have now received my taster bottle (2 cl). Unfortunately my bottle got stuck in the Norwegian customs, and I got my hands on it 10 days after the competition closed. Then to add insult to injury the overzealous DHL Express invoiced me NOK 234 for receiving the package!  That's NOK 15 in alcohol tax, NOK 179 in processing fee and NOK 40 in VAT. Meh!

The Timorous Beastie 40 YO has already sold out, and the selling price was GBP 199.

Nose: Light and dreamy. Summer fruits and honey. Then, slowly materialising there is beeswax, pine wood forest, and the faintest touch of oakiness. Sugar cubes infused with camphor. This is old school! Slightly timorous on the nose, maybe.

Taste: Oily and rich mouthfeel. Quite spicy, sweet and big in every way. The beastie is still very much alive.  Bitter oranges, white pepper, black pepper, cinnamon, fresh ginger, sugar and camphor.

Finish: Long and oily finish. The honey sweetness, with light spices in the mix, sticks (literally) on the palate for a long, long time.

Comments: A wonderful blended malt. Is it worth GBP 199? Not sure, but not far from it anyway, because this was darn good, and we all know which way the price of quality whisky is headed.

Score (89/100)

Sláinte!
- Thomas