A gang of young Glens

November 5, 2013

A gang of young Glens

Usually easy, fruity drams that won't make you scratch your head but that can be very quaffable. So probably no record breakers but pleasure may be found in these little babies...

Glenallachie 8 yo 2005/2013 (47.5%, Sansibar, 242 bottles)

Colour: pale gold. Nose: starts all on creamy vanilla and various fruits, both fresh and as jams. Peaches, apples, apricots, pears... Add to that a little honey and flower nectar and then hints of citrus fruits (tangerines?) and you get... a young Balvenie. That's funny! More cinchona and malt after ten minutes. Mouth: exactly the same feeling. Apricot pie, honey and maple syrup, custard, wheelbarrows of juicy yellow plums (that's right, mirabelles) and then more grassy touches, between apple peelings and plain cut grass. Finish: rather long, a tad more green and bitter. So more grass and a little tobacco, straight from an half-smoked untipped cigarette (as far as I can remember). Comments: a rather estery young Speysider but it's already mature and 'creamy'. Liked it. SGP:551 - 84 points.

Glen Moray 12 yo 2000 (56.1%, Single Cask Nation, first fill bourbon, cask #797, 148 bottles, +/-2013)

Signatory had quite a few young Glen Morays a while back but other than those and the officials, this is 'new' to me. Colour: pale gold. Nose: pretty much the same territories, it's a creamy, vanilla-ed fruity dram. Again, ripe plums, honey, 'yellow' flowers, apricots, ripe apples and, in the background, a little marzipan and maybe halva. Roasted cashews. With water: same. Well maybe it's even a notch peachier in all senses of that word. Mouth (neat): very honeyed (lemon honey), with a very thick and oily mouth feel. The first fill bourbon wood really shows here but it's quite perfect. So a lot of custard, orange marmalade, pineapple sweets... This works! With water: more of all that but now with also something bourbony. More vanilla and now touches of ginger. Finish: long and really all on orange marmalade now. Zesty lemon in the aftertaste. Comments: almost for your (American) breakfast. I think you cannot do much better with a young Glen Moray. Impressive. SGP:641 - 87 points.

Glen Elgin 17 yo 1995/2013 (46%, Carn Mor, Strictly Limited, 734 bottles)

From two casks. I agree, not that young but wasn't 1995 just yesterday? Colour: white wine. Nose: a little bizarre, or say unusual. We're on roots and vegetables, I get stewed turnips and celeriac, then rather porridge and lastly, overripe apples. Also touches of wax and oils, always welcome and typically Glen Elgin. The jury's still out... Mouth: better balanced, between oranges and barley sugar, but there's also a growing bitterish grassiness. Liquorice wood? Green pepper? Yet it all remains fruity. Pear cake with a little cinnamon, perhaps. Finish: rather short, with good balance. Fruits, marmalade and white pepper. Comments: not much to say. Not bad at all, the nose was a little more interesting than the palate. SGP:551 - 80 points.

Glen Ord 16 yo 1997/2013 (48.4%, Douglas Laing, Old Particular, refill hogshead, ref #DL9954, 396 bottles)

Almost 400 bottles from a single hogshead, that's not bad even if this baby was reduced. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: interesting! Little wood here, rather a mature 'pure' distillate, a style that I really enjoy. In other words, there's time, there isn't wood. Add to that the fact that Ord is a brilliant spirit and you get a superb nose, slightly waxy/petroly, with some hay, cider apples, just a little menthol, raw barley - and yet it's not newmaky at all - and then just wee touches of humus. Lovely, lovely. Mouth: how interesting! It's a little whacky, actually, fizzy like Schweppes, lemony like, err, lemonade and herbal like an old yellow Chartreuse. Add dashes of black and white peppers and you get a very 'nervous' dram. Very interesting and 'good'. Finish: quite long, the fizzy side having become even bigger. It's gin-fizz! Comments: this one was really fun and, indeed, different. It's maybe not technically perfect but as we say in Alsace, vive la différence! SGP:361 - 87 points.

Glentauchers 1998/2013 (46%, Gordon & MacPhail Reserve for La Maison du Whisky, cask #2413, 317 bottles)

Colour: gold. Nose: it's the opposite of the Glen Ord in the sense that this one has much more cask influence. Having said that, it's a very pleasant cask influence, with some great tea, tobacco, incense and camphor (hints) at first nosing, then something that really resembles great OBE. More tobacco, old earthy teas, whiffs of 'old toolbox', a bag of walnuts... It's all pretty complex. Great sherry! Mouth: peat! Really, there's a feeling of peat(iness) in the arrival beside quite some marmalade, some green smoke, more tobacco, more walnuts... All that tends to become a little too dry (too walnutty) at some point but on the other hand, sparks of lemon bring a great youthfulness. Several whiskies in one, I'd say. Finish: quite long but rather acrid and a little difficult. Bitter liqueurs. Comments: I loved some parts and liked other parts a little less. Not a very focussed Glentauchers but the arrival on the palate alone is worth it. SGP:362 - 83 points.