1980S United Distillers Whisky Set

United Distillers, which later became part of Diageo, released several notable whisky collections in the 1980s. One of the most famous is the Classic Malts Collection, launched in 1988. This collection featured six single malt whiskies, each representing a different region of Scotland1. The original six malts included:

Glenkinchie 10 years (Lowland)

This one from a very early ‘Classic malts’ bottle.

Colour: Pale gold.

Nose: Notes of walnuts, green apples (cider apples) and touches of grapefruits in the aftertaste. Mouth: Touches of grasses and citrons in the arrival, then more maltiness.

Finish: Malty, candied and grassy.

Dalwhinnie 15 years (Highland)

Colour: Pale gold.

Nose: Certainly maltier, and even more full-bodied than its elder sibling. Really punchy and again quite smoky, developing on simple but enjoyable notes of hot praline, pastries, light toffee, cappuccino… It gets quite fruity, at that (bananas, rum soaked pinepapples), with also notes of dried coconut and again something resinous (pine needles, fir liqueur). Very good!

Mouth: Smooth, sweet, very malty and unexpectedly winey now, almost like a sweet white wine (Cérons, Cadillac). It does grow bolder, with quite some liquorice (liquorice stick), smoked tea, roasted nuts and even something slightly minty.

The finish is very long, at that, perfectly balanced, both fruity and caramelly.

Cragganmore 12 years (Speyside)

Color: Old Gold - Amber

Nose: Absolutely peaty citrus fruits and wild, dark berries with smoky phenols, shoe leather and excellent tobacco aromas. Syrup-like sherry and balsamico in creamy vanilla. The citrus and orange fruit flavors have a very invigorating nose. Old cedar wood, soaked in the finest, smoky tobacco flavors.

Taste:  Explosive to the touch based on dried peat bales, sherry deluxe, fruity berries, cigars and the finest cedar wood. A honey-balsamic sweetness with malty flavors is added, as well as notes of shoe polish, mint, eucalyptus, hazelnuts and ingeniously bound wood (the wood runs parallel with the spicy sweetness).

Finish: Ultralong...Wood-malt-peat-smoke-tobacco-phenol-sherry-cocoa-wood-malt-peat-smoke-sherry

Oban 14 years (West Highland)

So a very early European Classic Malt, still filled into a 75cl bottle and bearing the 'Little Bay of Caves' nickname.

Colour: Light gold. 

Nose: Sooty profile, full of black olives juice and roasted pine nuts. Some meaty fatness (mutton suet?) and then an unexpectedly gentler combination of butterscotch and café latte. Wee touches of  beeswax and thyme essence somewhere in the background. 

Mouth: Very sooty and a tad mustardy at first, getting then relatively rounder, with burnt cakes and roasted chestnuts. Quite some saltiness coating all that, reminiscent of black olives once again. Certainly one of the sootiest malts and, in a way, a true West-coaster beside Springbank and, say Ben Nevis. 

Finish: Long, dry, very salty and with clear notes of pine smoke. Comments: probably more complex than newer offerings, although I would believe that recent batches have improved again after some more difficult 2000s. Extremely good and truly idiosyncratic.

Talisker 10 years (Isle of Skye) old Map

Colour: Gold. 

Nose:  Metal polish, shoe polish, coal smoke, damp grains and then - with patience - comes some green banana, mango and crystallised lemon peel. Still a very present coastal impression behind all that.

Mouth: Superb arrival. All on olive oils, tropical fruit juices, seawater, ink, green Chartreuse, boiled lime sweets, camphor, black pepper and copper coins. It’s heartening that this Talisker ‘salt n pepper’ aspect is already very vivid in this early batch. 

Finish: Good length, drying, grapefruit piths, smoked sea salt, oysters, green olives and hessian

Lagavulin 16 years (Islay)

Lagavulin 16 yo (43%, OB, White Horse Distillers, 70cl, -/+ Late 1980s)

This is one of the earliest batches of the 16 year old, a UK market version this one.

Colour: Gold, a notch lighter than the others.

Nose: Even balance between peatyness and fruit. Loads of banana, pineapple and a little mango. Then iodine, old rope, hessian, tar liqueur and brine. Quite magnificent and more towards a fruitier, older style of Islay whisky.

Mouth: Peat, various oils, fruit liqueurs, oysters, lemon peel, crystallised tropical fruits. A whole other ballpark this stuff! Camphors, resins, smoked tea, black olives, earth, sandalwood, the list goes on and on...! Orange blossom and medical tinctures emerge with a little more time. But then, you could write an essay about a whisky like this so we’ll just stop here I think.

Finish: Full spectrum: coastal to sweet; deep peat to fragrant smoke; green to tropical. Beautiful and not a little humbling.