Question on Mortlach style

[zl725]

Hi everyone,

I have never tried a Mortlach before and am itching to buy one from TWE in the near future. The two that have caught my eye are the G&M Mortlach 21YO and the Murray McDavid 18YO 1988/2006. The supposed casking for these bottles are sherry and bourbon respectively. My question is which type of cask would give the most "authentic" house style of Mortlach? I am only considering buying one bottle.

[Ganga]

I've always liked sherry Mortlach. Most of what I've had has been sherry matured or at least sherry finished. The only official bottles I am aware of are the Flora and Fauna bottles. Recollection (yeah 7 years or so ago) is that these are at least in part sherry casked whiskies.

[The Third Dram]

...which type of cask would give the most "authentic" house style of Mortlach?

For what it's worth, I'd say, "Either or."

True, the 16-year old official distillery release is quite heavily sherried. And there are many other independent bottlings of Mortlach that play to the same style of utilizing a high proportion of distillates matured in first-fill ex-Jerez casks. However, one is probably just as likely to come across Mortlachs drawn from second-fill ex-Sherry oak, from ex-Bourbon barrels or from a combination of the two.

One of the best authentic Mortlachs I've tasted is the 1972 (22YO) Rare Malts Selection bottled at 65.3%ABV. It displays characteristics of having been aged in both types of oak, and is none the worse for it.