Well who'd have thought it? Mortlach is a fruity whisky.
I tasted this particular bottling (Cadenhead Mortlach 14yo 1992/2006, 46%) blind, and never in a decade would I have picked Mortlach as the source, because, to repeat my initial question, where's the sherry?
Actually, no, don't tell me. Leave it in Spain. Mortlach without sherry influence is a lovely dram, all green apples and highland toffee and angelica and very, very fresh. Also, light and watery - not lacking intensity of flavour, I mean the texture is watery. A breakfast Mortlach, or, (for the more puritanical) an aperitif.
It does say on the bottle that this whisky has been matured in sherry casks, but they must have been very old, for there really isn't any sort of influence on the flavour. And a good thing too, say I. Mortlach 14yo, a very good thing indeed, 4+.