
June 19, 2018

Wee fights, today Glenfiddich

A quick, easy session, with one OB and one IB. That’s right, an independent Glenfiddich.

Glenfiddich ‘The Original’ (40%, OB, 2017)

Glenfiddich ‘The Original’ (40%, OB, 2017)
Most sadly, I haven’t got any ‘original’ Original at hand, that is to say the ‘Straight Malt’ bottling from the early 1960s, but last time I assessed that one, in 2007, I had thought it was brilliant (WF 91). The hot air machine keeps claiming that that one was ‘the world's first single malt’, but we’ve all seen approx. 100,000 examples of earlier single malts by other makers – and yes, for many foreign markets. Oh well. Anyway, it had been bottled at 43%, whilst this quasi-replica has been reduced to the limit. A bit cheap if you ask me (and yet it’s expensive – and NAS). Colour: straw. Nose: porridge, oatcakes, chalk, malt, grass, cardboard, green oak, lager beer. Pretty unsexy so far, I would say. Mouth: good, malty, rather firmer than the current 12, with some pepper and some green tannins, plus a little marmalade, turmeric, and used tealeaves. Finish: medium, a tad tannic, tea-ish, with the trademark pears in the aftertaste. Comments: fair and good, just not exactly ‘original’. Fifteen points are missing here – but that happened almost everywhere within 40 or 50 years.
SGP:361 - 78 points.

Wardhead 21 yo 1997/2018 (55.5%, Liquid Treasures, bourbon hogshead)

As you know, some distilleries are hiring armies of Erasmus students (well, pre-Brexit students) who would carry teaspoons and cans of other malts, and who would pop each and every bung to add a spoonful of that other malt to each cask, so that no one could use the original name anymore, rather the name of a ‘blended malt’. In this case, Wardhead (which is Glenfiddich). Colour: straw. Nose: it’s brighter and fruitier, and rather more ‘Glenfiddich’ (which takes the biscuit, in all senses of that expression). So, biscuits, pear cake, green apples, cherries, green melon, a little ale, hops… It’s no ‘wide’ malt but it’s very clean. With water: gets chalky. Wet plaster, cut grass, bone-dry beer. Mouth (neat): classic fruity/grassy/ale-y profile. Green pepper, green apples, IPA, pears… With water: good! Touches of grapefruits this time, more green tea, bitter beer, green pepper, and rather more straight barley… Finish: medium, herbal, also gets very barley-y and orange-y towards the aftertaste, in a very nice way. Comments: very ‘straight’ this time, and punchier than the OB, even when reduced to 40% vol.
SGP:451 - 85 points.

Check the index of all Glenfiddich we've tasted so far