Scotch

Whisky Review: House of Hazelwood A Minute to Midnight 45 Year Old Charles Gordon Collection

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Whisky Review: House of Hazelwood A Minute to Midnight 45 Year Old Charles Gordon Collection

by Beth Whymark
November 27, 2024

Beth, a whisky enthusiast, became Whisky Magazine’s editor (2022-2024) and now works in content marketing for scotch whisky brands.

Tasting Notes:

About:

A blended scotch combining grain whisky with heavily sherried malt whisky.

Appearance:

Maple syrup

Nose:

Syrupy baked pears with dark muscovado sugar. Loose-leaf black tea, a variety flavored with cherry. Also, the syrup from tinned black cherries. Balsamic glaze. Rich red fruits, like a ruby port. Balsamic glaze, black pepper and dried herbs. Cacao nibs, warm macerated strawberries and chocolate-coated raisins.

Palate:

Jammy red fruits upfront — sloes, blackcurrant, raspberry. Cocoa powder, like a rich chocolate sponge cake before it’s iced. Bitter espresso and pink peppercorns. That tinned cherry syrup clings around the edges, with a hint of cherry cola. Marzipan and buttery puff pastry.

Finish:

Fresh mint, torn and fragrant, leads the finish with more of that cherry-tinted black tea.

Comments:

For a blended scotch, this had serious clout — the casks have worked their magic here, lending a richness that is certainly unusual for this whisky style but undeniably delicious.

Beth Whymark

Following six years in regional journalism, Beth entered the world of spirits in 2020 after joining Paragraph Publishing, the company behind Whisky Magazine and the World Whiskies Awards. She was editor of Whisky Magazine from September 2022 to July 2024 and served as one of the publication's tasters. Her current role is in content marketing, working day-to-day with a number of Scotch whisky brands, and she is still reading and writing about and tasting whiskeys from around the world in her spare time.

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