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| Hello, that is one in all our (virtually) each day tastings. Santé! |
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September 15, 2021
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Glenlivet to
the ability
of seven
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| An ueber-classic, the mom of all ‘Glenlivets’. I’ve all the time believed, whereas so many different Distilleries had been utilizing the title as a suffix (Macallan-Glenlivet and so many others), that the previous house owners ought to have began to name their make ‘Glenlivet-Glenlivet’ as an alternative of simply ‘Smith’s Glenlivet’. Nah, I agree, dangerous concept I suppose, let’s relatively spend our power looking for a correct apéritif… |
| Journal advert, USA, 1983. $20 again then > |
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Glenlivet 15 yo ‘French Oak Reserve’ (40%, OB, +/-2020) 
40% vol. feels just a little stingy for a 15, however let’s have a look at… Apparently, it isn’t all solely about French oak, some American oak has been used too in some unspecified time in the future. We have final tried the 15 ‘French Oak Reserve’ again in 2011 and had thought it was fairly good (WF 81). Color: mild gold. Nostril: typical Glenlivet, relatively gentle, with various cereals, cornflakes, just a little crème brûlée and even bananas flambéed, going then relatively in the direction of English tea, with a tiny whiff of heat paraffin. Nice gentle and but full nostril. Mouth: creamy and relatively ‘American oak’, fairly bizarrely, with some custard and nougats. Tends to turn into grassier and just a little bitter over time, with this sense of ‘fast sherry’ that is usually encountered in whiskies which have spent a small a part of their lives in conditioned ‘sherry’ casks. End: brief, gentle, mild, not disagreeable in any respect. Simply, yup, mild. A bit of cinnamon. Feedback: actually mild and simple, within the model of, say Cardhu or Knockando. Maybe for these everlasting rookies that all of us have as buddies (‘do you might have one which’s not smoked?’) Rating unchanged.
SGP:341 – 81 factors. |
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Maybe one other, extra intriguing OB earlier than we deal with just a few IBS…
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Glenlivet 12 yo ‘Illicit Nonetheless’ (48%, OB, The Authentic Tales, 2020) 
Did you already attempt the varnis… I imply the whisky they make of their wee ‘illicit nonetheless’ on the Distillery? Properly, I did and you’d imagine it was relatively made on the Fort of Aargh, for those who ask me. However I imagine that is only a ‘tribute’ bottling and that it doesn’t shelter that juice. Color: gold. Nostril: nice, buttery, just a little eau-de-vie-ish (uncooked kirschwasser), on cereals once more, not too removed from the 15 so far as the general profile is worried. I am discovering relatively loads of beeswax, these touches of paraffin once more, kougelhopf and orange blossom water. A contemporary field of Turkish delights straight from Istanbul, and people ripe apples that are not uncommon in Glenlivet. Good. Mouth: very creamy, very candy-like, fairly waxy once more, going in the direction of honey sweets and preserved peaches and pears. A bit of icing sugar, cane syrup, then grassier notes, inexperienced tea, wee touches of turmeric and ginger from some oak that will need to have been fairly energetic… And vanilla. End: relatively lengthy, with extra bubblegum and some marshmallows. Pears as properly, then spices and teas once more. Feedback: a extra fashionable Glenlivet that they might as properly have bottled of their Distillery Reserve Assortment for those who ask me. I discover it superb. We’re prepared for the IBS (that ought to actually be IBs, thanks Maurice)…
SGP:551 – 85 factors. |
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Glenlivet 17 yo 2003/2021 (46%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Selection, refill bourbon barrel, cask #800356+58, 510 bottles)
Color: white wine. Nostril: we’re actually very near the Illicit one, with the same fruity and cereally arrival on the nostril, then relatively honey and natural teas. Apples, peaches, and as soon as once more just a little beeswax. Questioning in the event that they have not been cranking-up the wax at Glenlivet within the early 2000s, possibly did they set up some outdated cast-iron receivers? As a result of bear in mind, it’s within the outdated pans that the most effective soups are made. A drop of gewurz. Mouth: actually good, just a little extra singular than the illicit one, that’s to say with just a little extra piney oils and resins at first, then wild thyme after which gentler, simpler notes of vanilla and certainly beeswax. Let’s not neglect the trademark apples. End: medium, relatively oily, with notes of, properly, waxed apples. In fact they do wax apples. Feedback: it’s actually household.
SGP:551 – 85 factors. |
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Glenlivet 16 yo 2004/2021 (46%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Selection, refill bourbon barrels, casks #800671-72, 510 bottles)
Color: white wine. Nostril: just a little extra stamina and extra bread, we’re type of nearer to the barley right here. The paraffin is louder too, there are church candles (amen), butterscotch and shortbread, plasticine, then just a few crushed pine needles… Oak oils. Mouth: wonderful, relatively firmer than your standard Glenlivet, with an surprising meatiness (nah it is no T-bone steak), then bitter ales and a few tobacco. Will get then gentler although, on apple compote and vanilla. Some motion on this one. End: relatively lengthy, on sliced apples, beeswax, just a little marmalade, and gentle cinnamon tea. A curious vinosity (fattish chardonnay) within the aftertaste, however in fact there is no wine in there. Feedback: superb and just a little ‘totally different’. What is the worth of distinction in whisky? You have received thirty minutes.
SGP:451 – 86 factors. |
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Glenlivet 12 yo 2007/2020 (66.3%, Signatory Classic for The Whisky Trade, Un-chillfiltered Assortment, first fill sherry hogshead, cask #900171, 309 bottles) 
I discover it splendid that at 66% vol., the extraordinarily distinguished bottlers would have determined to not chill-filter this insane child. Color: amber. Nostril: extra shoe polish than in a barracks and extra spent engine oil than below an outdated Jag. We cannot take any additional possibilities… With water: typically pure magic occurs when malt whisky encounters dry sherry. Bovril, umami sauce, beeswax, charcoal (BBQ) and deep-roasted beef, and actually loads of engine oil. Huge quantities of engine oil and metallic polish. Mouth (neat): a mixture of espresso, marmalade and gun oil. Oh and ethanol. With water: gentler, with far more marmalade and compote, chamomile tea, hawthorn, and simply ‘desserts’. Roasted pecans and chestnuts too. And there, burnt kougelhopf. And cloves and juniper berries. End: very lengthy, bone-dry, very oloroso-y. Espresso, meat, tobacco and bitter chocolate. Feedback: appears like TWE have diverted fairly just a few of those uncooked but incredible 2007 ‘livets by SigV. Quite within the model of the earliest A’bunadhs, GF 105, Mac 10 C/S…
SGP:561 – 88 factors. |
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Glenlivet 1978 (41.7%, The Excellent Fifth, cask #13523, 2021?)
I have not seen this one on-line but, however there, now we have it. Image of one other bottling in the identical vary. Color: greenish gold. Nail? Copper? Patch? Nostril: crème au beurre and rhubarb wine, rusty nails and screws, sweetened bitter fruits, plastic luggage (bear in mind?), leatherette, bitter cream… All that works fairly properly on the nostril regardless of all these relatively deviant notes, however so far as the palate’s involved, properly, we’re scared now… Mouth: properly, it really works, however as soon as once more we’re removed from what was to be anticipated (earlier than we noticed the color). Previous candy wines, outdated Sauternes, raisins, Tuscan vinsanto, stuff like that, all bottles being very outdated. Previous pine liqueur too, linseed oil… Now the low power doesn’t obligatorily increase an issue. End: medium and really fairly good. Think about raisins macerated in outdated yellow chartreuse (besides that this whisky is inexperienced, I imply, actually). Feedback: typically whiskies come my approach whereas they’d by no means make it to the market. It is a very uncommon but superb whisky, the sort that you just typically encounter whereas touring warehouses, valinch in hand. They have an inclination by no means to come back out, particularly because the colors will scare off many potential patrons.
SGP:471 – 85 factors. |
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Glenlivet 45 yo 1976/2021 (43.9%, Gordon & MacPhail, Non-public Assortment, refill American hogshead, cask #1565) 
45 years, we’re actually including up right here. Color: mild gold, the magic of refill. Nostril: nice outdated Meursault with a dollop of absinth. Honeysuckle, butter cream, beeswax, then varied outdated apples and plums, an outdated rectory’s orchard across the finish of the month of august, vanilla, liquorice wooden and fennel seeds, carrot tops, hay smoke, wooden smoke, miso… As usually when a whisky’s this outdated, aromas are inclined to decompose into many tinier notes, some being virtually inexpressible and but there are there. What we typically name a ‘fractal nostril’ (ouch). Mouth: fractal certainly, however relatively drier this time, with extra oak than the color had recommended. Fairly some wooden oils, thuja, eucalyptus, pine and fir, some tobacco, hints of turpentine-like notes, then final 12 months’s apples, walnuts… What’s significantly humorous right here is that this child tends to enhance over, say fifteen minutes, turning into brighter and fruitier, whereas very outdated whiskies would relatively are inclined to lose steam and turn into drying. You understand, the ‘black tea impact’. I am glad I am going to handle to maintain it across the 90-mark in my e book. End: just a little brief, which is totally regular, however splendidly natural. Raisins marinated in natural liqueur plus rooster soup. The aftertaste is especially great, with some lime coming out. It is all the time nice when lemons, grapefruits and limes do this. There, another level. Feedback: this outdated glory by no means stopped enhancing, gaining one level each three or 4 minutes. Respect.
SGP:461 – 90 factors. |
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