Tasting lab: Living Souls Blended Scotch Whisky, 40yrs, Batch 2
much ado about nothing
Whisky name: 40 Year Batch #2
Bottler: Living Souls
Region: Islay
Age / Release: Laid down to marry in 1998, bottled in 2024
ABV: 45.1%
Price range: £125
Hot take:
Marries since ‘98…and the spark’s gone missing. Four decades have polished smooth rather than added depth, showing just how important an active cask can be.
Tasting Notes + Scoring Grid
Flavour chemistry breakdown
Production notes
Forty years on a label sets big expectations. Here, the story is less about wood fireworks and more about long marrying in a tired (refill) sherry butt that was asked to hold a blend together rather than change it.
Laid down to marry in 1998 and bottled in 2024, the cask seems to have acted as a neutral room: it rounded edges, softened peat to a whisper, and let the fermentation-led fruit (apple/pear, a touch of banana) do the talking. The musty, papery drift that appears on the nose reads like trace warehouse character rather than full-on sherry influence, and the short finish suggests the wood had very little left to give.
Most flavours are distillery character: peat from the malting process and lots of esthers that would have come from fermentation. An active cask would have added a bit more…especially have 4 decades.
Context + commentary
Living Souls is a new independent bottler from John Torrance, Jamie Williamson, and Calum Leslie, launched in late 2024 with a small first collection. Their 40-year blend is unusual not for its proof or price but for its method: the component whiskies were blended in 1998 and left to marry in a refill sherry butt, then bottled in 2024 at 45.1% ABV, without colour or chill-filtration.
Food pairing: Keep it light and unsmoked so you don’t swamp the delicate nose: thin slices of tart green apple, plain oatcakes with a soft goat’s curd or young pecorino, and a few unsalted almonds. A small spoon of acacia honey on an oatcake echoes the soft sweetness without tipping it into cloying.
Companion dram: Pour a younger, ex-bourbon Islay (10–12 years, ~46–50% ABV) alongside. The cleaner peat and brighter citrus/green-fruit will show you what this blend is missing in drive and finish. For a wood contrast, follow with a sherry-forward blended malt where the cask is clearly active; it’s a tidy A/B on how active vs neutral wood shapes both mid-palate and length.
Cultural note: “Marrying” blends in neutral oak is a long-standing blender’s practice: the aim is to integrate components, not add new flavours. Using a refill butt for decades keeps oxygen trickling in while the wood stays largely hands-off. It’s why very old blends can feel polished but pale—beautifully even on the nose, yet missing the push you might expect from their age.
Score / Verdict
Score: 70/100
Verdict: A bit of a whomp, whomp moment, but one that helps to prove that older isn’t always better. Flavour miracles happen in the cask, and while it can be nice to get distillery character, we were expecting more from maturation in this one.
P.S.
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