Banff 1966 34 Year Old Silent Stills Signatory

Banff Duncan Taylor, Rarest of the Rare, 1975, 35yr old, 45.4% ABV

Before the tasting notes, I must say that Banff whisky is very special and should be regarded as one of the best older whiskies out there from mothballed distilleries (ie, St Magdalene, Brora, Inverleven, Coleburn, etc). This independent bottling from Duncan Taylor is not only special, it is a delicious piece of whisky history! Nose: Green...

Score 91/100

Banff 21 Year Old 1978 Chieftain’s

Banff is one of the distilleries that did not survive the big closing round in 1983, executed by Diageo. So this is not a whisky that you encounter often. So far, I have only tried two myself; a 37 Year Old 1971 from the Dead Whisky Society and a 32 Year Old 1975 from Douglas Laing. Hence I am very curious about this much younger and very pale...

Score 80/100

Banff 1966 34 Year Old Sherry Cask

Nose: obviously from a (great) sherry cask. It shows lovely shoe polish and precious wood, apples, prunes, rhubarb, apple pie… A bit of old roses and leather. Even faint smoke and gentle tarmac. Cigar box. Quite superb, it could have been one of the great Macallan 18yo’s or an old Strathisla. You may argue that it shows little distillery character...

Score 85/100

Banff 22 Year Old 1974 Connoisseurs Choice

Oh, look now, my 10th Banff. This Speyside distillery closed its doors in 1983 and has since been demolished. There's only one official bottling, the 21-year-old from 1982 in the Rare Malts Selection, bottled in 2004 (which I tasted in 2017). What I'm tasting today is a 22-year-old from 1974 that was bottled in 1997. So it has been in the bottle...

Score 87/100