The Maltman Blended Malt 30 Years Old 1992 (Meadowside Blending)

This is a 30 year old blended malt from Meadowside Blending, released in their Maltman range as a 1992 vintage matured in Oloroso sherry and bottled at a natural 47.6% in an outturn of 549. A blended malt marries malt whiskies from more than one distillery, here drawn from a single year and a single sherry treatment, the sort of small batch vintage bottling Meadowside built the Maltman name on.

Oloroso sherry maturation shapes the whisky. The style ages in open contact with air, building a nutty, oxidative depth, and across thirty years the malt has reached an oxidative and evaporative maturity, the dried fruit of the cask layering over a softening, slowly concentrated spirit as the angel's share takes its share each year.

At 47.6% it is deep and savoury. The melanoidins of the Oloroso give fig, raisin and a walnut depth, while three decades of ageing add old oak and a soft, malty sweetness underneath. The finish is long and gently nutty, a single vintage blended malt grown rich and rounded across thirty years in sherry wood. Independent vintage blended malts of this age are increasingly hard to find at sensible outturns, which is part of the appeal of a Maltman release.