Old Rhosdhu 30yo
Loch Lomond from Bedford Park | 46.7% ABV
Score: 9/10
Exceptional.
TL;DR
Inchmurrin on steroids, with added x-factor
Added X-Factor
They just don’t make ‘em like they used to. You know the old saying.
You’ve either heard your parents, grandparents, or even heard yourself mutter under your breath from time to time when that new-fangled doo-dah thingymajig doesn’t work.
The human condition to always push forward is alive and kicking, constantly inventing new things and pushing the boundaries in science, computation, and medicine.
But is advancement for the sake of advancement truly worth it? Is the new fancy thing actually better? Does the new thing - that often comes with many more components - actually consistently achieve its purpose? Are those components, either physical or coded electron pulses from someone's key strokes, just added complication? Is artificial intelligence actually worth it? Or is it a clever shortcut to rudimentary facts and figures (or even fake facts) rather than advancements in human intelligence and personal development?
I suspect future generations are going to be utterly useless without their AI companion, lacking the ability to reason, sort data, and make well-reasoned judgements on their own. Heck, I can already recognize that pattern in fresh graduates and junior applicants: they’re great software drivers but lack the fundamental underpinnings to actually understand what they are doing, and therefore cannot judge if something makes sense or not. Cosmos help us all, for we are doomed.
My background is decidedly more old-school influenced. We grew up ‘resourceful’. Creating things. Fixing things. Building things. Because we needed to. And because we could. No internet AI shortcuts, no special proprietary tools, nothing. Just good ‘ole fashioned ingenuity, experience, and hard-earned callouses.
I remember removing the cylinder head off a 1940’s Minneapolis tractor, soaking the pistons in a special concoction of automatic transmission fluid and WD-40 in an attempt to free the rusted and stuck pistons from their oxidized hold on the cylinder walls. When that didn’t work and the starter refused to spin the old goliath over, we resorted to more manual persuasion. We were hopeful but not stupid, we knew we likely needed to escalate the situation.
My father held a 4x4 wood block while I stood, spread across the rear axle, swinging a sledgehammer mercilessly and with pinpoint accuracy lest I strike the block surface and wreck the entire engine. After many swings and tired arms, it budged. Then budged some more, eventually driving the piston to the bottom of its stroke. We moved to the next cylinder, driving that piston down so that all the pistons moved past their rusted demarcations in the bores.
It was eventually free enough that we could turn the engine over with the starter. Reassembling the engine, it fired up after sitting in the bush, forgotten for 30 years with trees sprouting up through the axles, and ran like a top the whole drive home, driven by yours truly on backroads when I didn’t even have my driver’s license. It served us faithfully for over twenty years, hauling 4000L of water up from the river through the rolling farmland hills to our hilltop yard site. With the governor wide open and the 6.6L 4-cylinder engine (yes you read that right, them pistons were bigguns) spitting fire out its exhaust five feet in front of my face - warming it as each exhaust cycle bellowed against the bushes, reverberating for a good distance in the still evening air after school and the homework was done.
Heck, I learned to drive on a 1920’s Ford truck when I was ten. Carburated, lacking windows, and fussy, I learned to drive a seventy-year-old 3-speed manual transmission that didn’t have any synchronization, requiring the driver to skilfully match the vehicle speed, engine RPM, and clutch and gas pedals to avoid grinding the gears. And you know what, that truck never once quit. It never once didn’t start. It never overheated. It never didn’t work, despite kids learning to fix and drive it.
Now that’s something that just cannot be said about newer stuff. I should know as I’ve spent far too much money on vehicles that I just couldn’t fix because I needed access to proprietary computer software. Sure, you generally get what you pay for, with the cheaper stuff typically made with lower quality standards, but I’d say we’ve made things more complicated with the advent of computerized systems requiring a myriad of sensors, complicated emissions systems that require extensive volumes of rare earth metals, and complication upon complication upon complication.
They simply just don’t make things like they used to, built to last and full of real character and not just electronic frivolity.
Old Rhosdhu fits this bill perfectly.
Review
Old Rhosdhu 30yo, Bedford Park, Loch Lomond (discontinued style), Refill Hogshead No. 4, Distilled 1994, Bottled 2025, 46.7% ABV
CAD$240 (£140) paid, now sold out
A discontinued style from Loch Lomond at the turn of the century, it featured a reported 1.5 times distillation whereby portions of the wash still run were utilized in the spirit cut. This unique assemblage, if you will, of the new make brought forward the expected funky notes from this grungier-type spirit. In my opinion, this would lend itself to forming fun flavours with long ageing periods.
Score: 9/10
Exceptional.
TL;DR
Inchmurrin on steroids, with added x-factor
Nose
Dense, dense, dense. An epic mashing of peaches, red apples, and pears cooked into a compote with healthy lashings of sugar and cinnamon. There are plenty of unique undertones of wet mulch and wet cellulose detritus, which I’ve come to understand is a trademark of well-aged Old Rhosdhu.
Palate
Eyes defocus. Body relaxes. Fireworks explode.
Syrupy entrance. Immediate candy-like sweetness and a perfect amount of cinnamon and tannic nibbles that prevent this from being too sweet. Baked fruit compote from the nose is carried through in spades. Apple danish with healthy drizzles of icing. Vanilla is here, and expected, but it’s in the background as is the wet leaf/stick aspect. The finish shows flashes of the mulchy leaf aspects, baked apple crisp dusted with cinnamon, and hard red candies. The finish is a long affair.
The Dregs
There is the fundamental core Loch Lomond DNA threaded through this long-discontinued style; those dense cooked fruits, great mouthfeel and texture, and a crisp, clean experience. I poured myself a 20yo Loch Lomond Inchmurrin (Boutique-y Batch 3, 51%), which could arguably be called a close cousin to this Old Rhosdhu, and the dense fruit and clean drinking experience are evident. This Old Rhosdhu excels in mouthfeel and texture in comparison, but that variance could be expected when comparing small batch and single casks. And this Old Rhosdhu and the mulchy aspect brings the x-factor to the equation that elevates this further.
Also, what is an ’x-factor’?
In metallurgy, the “x-factor” is an informal designation for the effect of trace elements or barely measurable elements that end up in a material that can drastically change the outcome after a period of time. This is especially important for nuclear applications where these pesky little trace elements end up going where you don’t want them, leading to long-term damage.
My mind went to x-factors because my schooling is welding metallurgy and x-factors are always on our mind when designing material systems that are fit-for-purpose. And that got me thinking: what’s the x-factor here with Loch Lomond that results in Old Rhosdhu?
It has to be that 1.5 times distillation that brought forward the not-quite-feinty, but not quite double-distilled goodness that we associate with double-distilled malt whisky. The core Loch Lomond backbone is still here but the x-factor in distillation and the requisite long-term effects caused this very flavourful divergence.
It’s telling of how much I enjoy this whisky because I bought a backup bottle. And now I’m wondering why I didn’t buy another backup bottle when they were on-sale (regular was $370!). Silly me indeed.
I can see why Loch Lomond discontinued this style as it very likely lends itself to a long period of aging which is not conducive to creating products that are ready to sell in a shorter period. But boy oh boy, did they ever make something characterful and delicious. They just don’t make it like they used to.
Maybe Loch Lomond will make a throwback batch and let us try a more modern take on this old-style distillate. That’d be good fun. And then maybe, just maybe, we could say that we can still make ‘em like they used to. Characterful. Made to last.
Made to create memories.
Score: 9/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB
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At the point of this article’s publication, Loch Lomond currently sits in position #16 in the Dramface Top 40.
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