Mosstowie
Mosstowie (pronouced: moss-TAOW-ee) was a spirit produced on Lomond stills at Miltonduff distillery from 1964 to 1981. Lomond stills are a combination of aspects of pot and column distillation. They have adjustable ‘rectifying’ plates in the neck that allow the distiller to adjust the rate and amount of reflux, thereby supposedly enabling them to produce different spirits from the same still. This is the theory, though many have posited that Lomond stills don’t actually offer as much variety as they were supposed to. The fact that so few are still used is probably testament to this fact. Mosstowie was discontinued as a spirit in 1981 due to lack of demand from the blenders.
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Mosstowie Distillery
Founded: 1964
Dismantled: 1981
Location: Miltonduff Distillery
Stills: Lomond Stills
Water Source: Black Burn
Owners: Diageo
However all this does not mean that Lomond stills could not produce a fine quality of spirit. If anything, the clutch of Mosstowie bottlings that exist support the ability of Lomond stills to make good whisky.
The majority of bottlings of Mosstowie that exist all hail from the early to mid seventies. The character is a very soft fruity and floral one, full of honeysuckle, fresh apples, pears, nectar, apricots, yoghurt, mead and fresh oatmeal. Duncan Taylor bottled four excellent casks from 1975 at varying ages that show the distillery character very well. Also excellent is a 17yo by G&M for Sestante (just mind the 66% alcohol), this is more powerful and buttery with a slight oiliness. A 1979 by Signatory was less inspiring but was still a good example of the distillate. All these bottlings range from flawless and very drinkable up to brilliant, it is enough to show that Mosstowie must have been a well made and consistent distillate. These bottlings can still be found fairly easily and at good prices, there doesn’t seem to be too much interest in Lomond spirits these days which is a shame when they were as good as Mosstowie. Anyway now is inevitably the time to buy them before they vanish away forever.
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