Today, two Royal Glenuries


November 26, 2020

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Why not? After all, our friends at the distilleries or blending houses do that all the time, so why not us?

Today, two Royal Glenuries

So today it’s going to be two ultra-rare Glenury Royal, hand-selected by yours truly from our stock of Glenury Royal samples (which, incidentally, used to shelter two samples altogether, but never mind).

Glenury Royal 35 yo 1984/2020 (49.1%, Gordon & MacPhail ‘125th Anniversary’, cask #2335, sherry butt, 397 bottles)

A recent bottling from G&M’s old stock. With these rare old casks and since Glenury used to be a staple malt at G&M’s in the old days, you cannot help wondering why they never bottled it before. I mean, was that because they had decided to keep it for a special occasion, or because they had discarded it? In any case, it’s said to be the house’s very last Glenury, while it had been distilled just one year before the distillery was shut down for good, in 1985. Colour: deep gold to amber. Nose: starts with butterscotch and cognac but it’s soon to get much more sherried, while that would rather be ‘cream’, so a blend of oloroso and PX. Big feeling of burnt cake, sticky toffee pudding, honey-glazed pecans, chestnut honey (huuuuge), sultanas, earth and tobacco, and more generally, brandy de Jerez, really. After a good few minutes you’d almost believe you’re nosing some old Malaga, but that’s close to sherry indeed. Fantastic rich, thick and heavy – if not heady - nose. Mouth: much less well-polished on the palate, much drier, spicier, grittier, and simply drying. Bitter herbs and walnuts from the year before the year before last year, terpenes, pine sap, our friends the artichokes and Brussels sprouts, some black tobacco, and more and more salt, as in if we were having some kind of cold beef broth. Bitter coffee. Finish: long and really very herbal, with very old walnuts and bitter molasses running the whole show until the end of the aftertaste. Comments: this is almost like playing an old 78rpm on a gramophone, with cracks, rumble and creaking. A tad challenging but charming. The nose was simply out of this world.
SGP:571 - 89 points (I agree with Angus).

Glenury Royal 13 yo 1966/1979 (80 proof, Cadenhead, sherry wood, black dumpy)

Glenury Royal 13 yo 1966/1979 (80 proof, Cadenhead, sherry wood, black dumpy)
Distilled when they were still having their own maltings, which were closed in 1968. There are several versions of this black dumpy 13 yo, some labelled as 80°proof, others at 46% vol., and some at 45.7%. I suppose those were different batches; but I’m not too sure. Yeah well, any excuses, really, since I believe we’ve tried them several times already. But this one stems from another bottle – indeed, any excuses. Colour: gold. Nose: some sublime OBE, as often in those old dumpies, which translates into wee notes of metal polish, fresh mushrooms, then bakelite and brake fluid, then an avalanche of smaller soupe-y notes, quenelles, parsley, bouillon, marrow, miso, glutamate/umami… Even croutons! Right, perhaps not croutons. Some fruitiness too, rather around overripe bananas I would say, as well as a little Fir bud liqueur. Mouth: rather immensely medicinal, on ointments, old-style mouthwash, then these metallic touches, orange zests, bitter chocolate, and various soups. Lovely bittersweet profile, it’s just about to begin to start to become a little flattish. No big deal. Finish: a little short but really very bouillony and salty. Comments: I’ve had other bottles, or maybe other batches, that had been bigger and some assertive as they say, but this one’s still rather at the top. Hugely different from the G&M but same level in my book.
SGP:362 - 89 points.

(Thank you Angus, and Phil at the heavenly Dornoch castle – and whisky bar – and distillery!)

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