Fiddichside, hmm… What could it be? I don’t know of any other distillery with ‘fiddich’ in its name, so I guess this will always be a guess. It does say that it’s a blended malt, so it might be a teaspooned one.
Apart from the mystery that cloaks this bottle, it used to be one of the rarer whiskies in my collection. And by rare I mean old and expensive, in this case. I got it during Covid when it was available through BijThijs in Vlagtwedde, The Netherlands. There was a ‘Drambo‘ sticker on it, so something was up with that, although I’m not entirely sure what, since it is not a bottling that was exclusive to them. Maybe it was exclusive to them in The Netherlands alone?
Sniff:
Old wood, apricot jam, warm apple sauce. There’s hints of barley too, but with an age like this, that gets pushed back a bit. There’s a sort of non-smoky charcoal note too. A pastry sweetness ties it all together.
Sip:
The palate is very gentle but does have a bit of a sawdust dryness. Again, a pastry like sweetness with egg-washed puff pastry, apples, raisins and cinnamon. So yeah, Tarte-Tatin, cobbler, what have you. Quite some oak and after a while some pepper starts shining through.
Swallow:
The finish lingers with dryness and the hint of pepper. It’s less sweet than the palate and nose, and a little bit more spicy. An apple seed bitterness joins the fray, with baking spices and some pear skins.
It is quite true to the character of the distillery that we don’t know about, with notes of fruit and apples, some honey throughout as well. A very gorgeous dram, especially because it has mellowed so much over three long decades. Highly recommended, even at the current rate of € 300 (which is only a tiny bit above the initial retail price).
91/100