Twenty-two years is a serious commitment from any distillery, and when a bottle arrives at that age with a non-chill-filtered strength of 46.7%, it tells you the people behind it have confidence in what's inside. The Loch Lomond 2002, part of the Open Course Collection 2025, is a Highland single malt that has spent over two decades maturing, and at £250 it sits in that increasingly contested space where aged whisky meets a market willing to pay for patience.
Loch Lomond has long been one of Scotland's more quietly intriguing operations. The distillery's ability to produce a range of spirit styles from a single site makes it something of an outlier, and a 2002 vintage bottled in 2025 represents a snapshot of the distillery's output from an era before it attracted the wider attention it now enjoys. This is whisky made before the hype, matured through it, and released into a very different landscape.
At 46.7% ABV, this sits just above the threshold where you start to feel genuine texture and weight without the burn that higher cask-strength releases can bring. It's a considered bottling strength — enough to carry the complexity that two decades of maturation should deliver, but approachable enough that you won't need to drown it in water to find what's there. For a 22-year-old single malt, that balance matters.
What to Expect
A Highland single malt of this age, bottled at natural colour and a robust strength, should offer the kind of depth that rewards slow drinking. Twenty-two years allows for genuine interaction between spirit and wood — expect the oak influence to be present and assertive, but at this ABV the distillery character should still have room to speak. The Open Course Collection positioning suggests this is intended as a prestige release, and the presentation and age statement back that up. This is not an everyday dram; it's a bottle you open with intent.
The Verdict
I'm giving this an 8.7 out of 10. At £250, you're paying a premium, but you're also getting something genuinely rare — a single malt with more than two decades of maturation, bottled at a strength that suggests care rather than compromise. The 2002 vintage gives this a provenance that newer releases simply cannot replicate, and there's real value in drinking whisky that was distilled in a different era of Scottish whisky-making. It won't suit those looking for a bargain, but for collectors and serious drinkers who understand what age and patience contribute to a glass, this is a worthy addition. The Open Course Collection has positioned itself as a series worth following, and this 22-year-old expression is a strong argument for why.
Best Served
Neat, in a tulip-shaped glass, with ten minutes of rest before your first sip. A whisky of this age and character deserves the time to open up. If you find it needs it, a few drops of still water at room temperature will help — but taste it undiluted first. At 46.7%, it shouldn't require much coaxing. This is an after-dinner dram, the kind you sit with when the evening has slowed down and you have nowhere else to be.
