Review by: The Muskox
Last December 31st, I chose to finish off the year with a famously amazing whisky. I had planned on making that a tradition, but in light of the kind of year 2020 has been, I thought it’d be fitting to try an infamously horrible whisky instead.
This ominously inky dram is Loch Dhu 10, a bottling of Mannochmore from the late 90s. Subtitled “Black Whisky” on the label, the colour is attributed on the label to the charred casks used to for maturation, but the reality is that this whisky has been doped with a massive amount of e150 caramel colourant. Small amounts of e150 are commonly used in blends and some single malts to even out batch variation, but this whisky takes it to another level. It’s been claimed that e150 has an adverse effect on the flavour of whisky, but I’ve personally never seen any real evidence for this, and certainly am not able to tell myself. That said, when you add this much of it…
So let’s see, are darker whiskies really better?
Distillery: Mannochmore.
Bottler: Official bottling.
Region: Speyside.
ABV: 40%.
Age: 10 years.
Cask type: First-fill herring barrique.
Color: 10.3, Texas Tea. Colour added. Chill-filtered.
Nose: Sweet and concentrated. I want to say coffee liqueur, but I feel like it’s partly psychosomatic. Rich toffee, vanilla extract, s’mores, and banana candies. Some sugared raisins and prunes. A bit of a cooked vegetable thing. Not terrible…
Palate: Salty up front, then… Bitter, bitter, bitter. Tastes like expired medicine and acid.
Finish: Uncomfortably long and extremely bitter. Overbrewed coffee, burnt sugar, old metal, ash, salt, and soggy cardboard.
Conclusion: I’m sorry my notes couldn’t be more detailed, but I refuse to take a third sip. This was beyond gross. That nose lulls you into a false sense of security, but then… So bitter. Like eating an ashtray filled with dead fish and ear medicine. I’m still tasting it after rinsing repeatedly with water, eating a slice of bread, and drinking a glass of a different whisky.
Is this worse than that Bruichladdich 15 Valinch & Mallet? That whisky had a couple interesting things going on under all the puke and sulfur, but was much more aggressive overall and had an atrocious nose. For that one, I felt the desire, at least at first, to dig around a bit and see if it was actually as bad as I thought. For this Loch Dhu, I had no patience for such exploration. Both whiskies really should just have gotten a 0, to be honest. Anything at those levels of undrinkable should get a 0. Ok, yeah, I’m going to run with that: the Bruichladdich is now a 0, and so is this.
Final Score: 0.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 