
February 8, 2018

Another wee bag of Glen Grant

Always a joy to try Glen Grant, what’s more many older bottlings are still available here and there. As an example, our little apéritif…

Glen Grant 8 yo (70°proof, OB, 26 2/3 fl. Ozs., +/-1970)

A much paler vatting this time, there were also darker ones in this famous square flat bottles. Colour: white wine. Nose: this stems from when Glen Grant was a fatter and bigger spirit. Fern, grape pips oil, coal smoke, ashes, grapefruits, fresh coriander, wort, farmyard, used tealeaves… Indeed, a fatter one! Mouth: excellent. Big lemony arrival, with some clear peat smoke, some peppermint, grapefruits, green gooseberries… Then a leafier smoke, fresh walnuts, a little olive oil, and always these lemons and grapefruits. Delisiously old-school. Finish: really long, with clear notes of Chartreuse and even more smoked grapefruits. Comments: absolutely adored this Chartreuse-y aftertaste. So much for a light apéritif…
SGP:463 - 89 points.

Glen Grant 2008/2017 (56.7%, Gordon & MacPhail, Cask Strength, casks 900011-900014)

G&M are famous for their older Glen Grants, while younger bottlings of theirs outside their licensed label are rather uncommon. Colour: full gold. Nose: a very almondy, leathery and flinty sherry style, with bags of fruit stones, kirsch, then muesli. It’s a tad aggressive and rough so far, but water may help us… With water: damp hay, leather, raw cocoa beans, soy sauce, ginger juice… Mouth (neat): boy this one’s raw! Leather, pipe juice, ginger, green fruits, more ginger, nutmeg, even more ginger… Some sour spices at play. With water: gets grassier, even sharper, peppery, leathery, bitter… Finish: long and really very spicy. Notes of lavender in the aftertaste. Comments: a rather monstrous young Glen Grant, far, very far from G&M’s usual silky and rounded old ones. I can take a rough malt but I’m afraid this one was a little too harsh and grassy for me.
SGP:371 - 77 points.

Glen Grant 1972/2010 (48.3%, Scotch Single Malt Circle, refill sherry, cask #3886, 138 bottles)

There was also an excellent 1972/1993 by the Circle (WF 90), but 1972 was a great year all around Scotland, wasn’t it. Colour: gold. Nose: perfect combination with honey, pollen, blond tobacco, dried figs, old Sauternes, and some kind of lemony raisins. Very lovely, as expected. Mouth: late harvest Pinot Gris, honey and honeydew, Breton mead, fig rolls, barley water… all that is purely impeccable. Wonderful honeyness. Finish: medium, with some citrus chiming in, all for the better. Pink grapefruits and a touch of beeswax in the aftertaste. Comments: this vintage is extremely hard to beat at many distilleries, and this was another fine example.
SGP:551 - 90 points.

Glen Grant 24 yo 1992/2017 (45.9%, Cadenhead, Small Batch)

This baby from two barrels. Colour: straw. Nose: the barrels’ vanilla and butterscotch are playing first and second fiddles here at first nosing, before a more ‘natural’ malty barleyness appears, with some porridge, wet oatcakes, Golden Grahams and a growing mentholy side. A touch of pinesap, genepy… Oak-aged genepy? Mouth: goody goody good. Vanilla, a little grass, tangerines, pear sweets, wine gums (not many), barley and agave syrups, and perhaps a touch of peppered chocolate. Oh and butterscotch again. Finish: medium, rather bright, with some vanilla, drops of limoncello, apple pie, and this butterscotchy feel in the back. Grassier aftertaste. Comments: all is well in the best of worlds.
SGP:451 - 86 points.

Speaking of G&M’s older Glen Grants…

Glen Grant 1961/2014 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, licensed bottling, first fill sherry butt, cask #6200)

Colour: deep amber. Nose: it’s true that we keep complaining about low strengths, but with these those lower strengths aren’t always a problem. What’s sure is that this nose is full of chestnut purée, raisins, some kind of pleasantly dusty wood (balsa?), chocolate, and even fine-crushed hazelnuts. No, no one said Nutella. Notes of black tea as well, rather Assam style. A perfect nose, I have to say. Mouth: so typically old Speysider by G&M! And proof that bottlers can have their own styles. Some old rancio, which leads to old Cognac, then tangerines and juicy ripe peaches, liquorice, blood oranges, the tiniest drop of soy sauce (umami), and a growing feeling of old white Burgundy, with wild mushrooms and this slightly rancid butteriness that can work so well. You’d never find this baby too weak, never. Finish: medium, and rather in the wine category again. Tiny herbs, parsley, dry raisins, figs… Comments: ultra-classic and ultra-class. And very ‘G&M’, which is often kind of the same thing.
SGP:561 - 91 points.

Check the index of all Glen Grant I've tasted so far