| |
Home
Thousands of tastings,
all the music,
all the rambligs
and all the fun
(hopefully!)
Whiskyfun.com
Guaranteed ad-free
copyright 2002-2023
|
 |
|
| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
| |
|
| |
| |
January 9, 2023 |
|
  |
A little bag of Glentauchers |
Keith's Glentauchers may not be a very well-known Distillery, but it's gaining traction as the bigger names are quitting the independent market, at least under their official names. Don't we prefer a Glentauchers over any 'Secret Famous Speysider'? Remember someone said, "The last will be first, and the first last" (Matthew 20:16). Quite a mensch that Matthew… In any case, it'll always remain our goal to keep tasting the smaller names not many people care about yet, every once in a while… As long as they don't STRise them all to sell them at 4 yo for the price of a 12… You say a 15? |
Glentauchers Distillery
(Anne Burgess) |
|
Glentauchers 24 yo 1997/2021 'The 26 #4' (50.8%, Maltbarn, bourbon cask) 
This baby comes with a mysterious name and a lovely bird on the label. I would suppose '26 #4' is not the name of that bird. Colour: straw. Nose: it's got this delicate oiliness, rather on sunflower oil, then flowers, dandelions, wallflowers, lilies, some very light molasses, some white nougat, some fresh breads and surely one croissant. No, no sugar on top of a croissant, and always some butter inside. Some apple juice and cider, plus some IPA. Aren't IPAs really becoming last decade? With water: sameish, few changes. Mouth (neat): a rather common, but always enjoyable trio at first, with vanilla, grass and bread, then sour apples. Perhaps a tad austere when neat. With water: many more changes brought by water on the palate. Some grapefruits appearing, for example, plus several other sour fruits, apples, sour cherries perhaps… Then jams, plums, and fruit wines, especially redcurrant wine and rhubarb wine. The best rhubarb wines are fantastic and would lose many a wine snob when poured blind. I know what I'm talking about, I've been caught myself. Finish: medium, always rather on greener and sourer fruits, which is wonderful. A little marzipan in the aftertaste. Comments: a wonderful, rather discreet sipper.
SGP:541 - 87 points. |
|
Glentauchers 2008/2021 (52.3%, Michiel Wigman, They Inspired III – Whisky Icons, sherry, 160 bottles)
With a very strange person's face on the label, a choice that we shan't comment on. Colour: dark amber. Nose: it is a richer sherry that reminds me of some thicker Malaga, millionaire shortbread, young rancio, with a little gunpowder and beef jerky, maybe even truffles, but no cabbage and no gas. There's also some amaretto, a little Nutella (apologies), and prunes in armagnac. With water: more on sweet bouillons and broths. Some Thai chicken soup of some sort, plus pipe tobacco. Mouth (neat): we're instantly reminded of some of the first Aberlours at CS or of Glenfarclas 105. It's rich, not cloying, but rather intense and really full of black raisins and puréed chestnuts. I would suppose you could call it a sherry monster, even if that would be a gentle monster. With water: very good, really, saltier and with a lot of chocolate. I don't know if that's the same all over the world, but here in France all good chocolatiers have started adding salt to their chocolates, as a few were already doing. Some marmalade and some coriander, some old walnuts. Finish: long and bouillony, with even more saltiness in the aftertaste. Some pepper as well. Comments: perfect counterpoint to the Maltbarn, which was of equivalent very high quality.
SGP:462 - 87 points. |
Weren't we mentioning hypra-young monsters?... |
|
Glentauchers 6 yo 2014/2020 (53.9%, The Whisky Mercenary for The Whisky Hogs, Belgium) 
Those Whisky Hogs should have good noses… Colour: deep gold. Nose: sure, butterscotch and gingerbread all over the place, plus hazelnut liqueur, pencil shavings and marrow bouillon. With water: fern and pinewood, plus some liquorice and grilled bacon, then chocolate sauce and a little balsamic vinegar. Mouth (neat): some varnish and cherries at first, then indeed butterscotch and milk chocolate. Lindt's whole catalogue. Something slightly acetic topping all this. With water: water brings out some fresher fruits, as well as a little lavender and violet. This is fun. Some pink grapefruit in the background. Finish: long and oakier, which is completely normal with this kind of set-up. Chocolate and juniper, plus parsley and cloves. Comments: the magic of modern technology. Perhaps a tad drying, but excellent, nonetheless.
SGP:561 - 84 points. |
|
Glentauchers 10 yo 2009/2019 (51.5%, Asta Morris, sherry cask, cask #AM102, 220 bottles)
It seems we're really late with our Glentauchers… In any case, I had never noticed that Asta Morris were having the Manneken-Pis on their label. Colour: gold. Nose: chocolate, stout, ripe fruits, dried fruits (dates) and a little chicory coffee. With water: maltier, with more cornflakes, praline, fudge, nougat… Mouth (neat): excellent, really all on butterscotch indeed, plus chicorée and Ovaltine. With water: raisin rolls! And stronger honeys plus marmalade. Finish: medium, with some speculoos (but of course) and marmalade. Maple syrup in the aftertaste. Comments: what we'd need now is a few pancakes. This little 'tauchers would make for a perfect sauce…
SGP:551 - 86 points. |
|
Glentauchers-Glenlivet 11 yo 2007/2019 (57.9%, Cadenhead, Small Batch, 840 bottles) 
From 3 bourbon barrels. Colour: white wine. Nose: back to gentleness and undulating barley fields, sunflower oil, apple juice, white chocolate, popcorn… With water: nice butter cream and vanilla custard. Whiffs of dandelions. Mouth (neat): something fizzy, Schweppes-y, lemony, with rather a lot of ginger too and some lime juice. This palate is very unusual. Big-brand flagship-level Champagne (they always prefer to use the word 'flagship' rather than 'entry'.) With water: very nice, maltier, on nougat and praline. Any ginger tonic is gone. Finish: rather long and rather grassier. Some green pepper and even chilli sauce and peppermint in the aftertaste, playing with your lips. Comments: a solid dram, with ups and downs. Not sure I'll remember it forever… Now, didn't they add a few drops of sriracha sauce?
SGP:461 - 82 points. |
|
Glentauchers-Glenlivet 12 yo 2007/2019 (59.3%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection, bourbon hogshead, 270 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: this one's a little more acetic than the Small Batch, with some acetone too, but that would then go away and leave room for some maize bread, mint fondant and perhaps a few drops of cologne (N°4711). With water: cornflakes and waffles, apple juice, yellow flowers, custard, popcorn… Much closer to the Small Batch once reduced. Mouth (neat): lemon juice mixed with kirschwasser and grass juice. A little tough and hot. With water: much gentler, maltier, with hints of pils beer, apple peeling and indeed, a little grass. Sourdough bread. Finish: rather long, grassy. Green bananas. Comments: perfectly all right, and quite curiously, rather less 'individual' than the vatting. I'm sure some would have finished this in whatever wine cask. No comments.
SGP:461 - 81 points. |
|
Glentauchers-Glenlivet 28 yo 1990/2019 (46.5%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection, bourbon barrel, 114 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: just another dimension. Ripe bananas, vanilla pods, chalk, honeysuckle, fresh-squeezed orange juice, a drop of olive oil, a drop of meadow honey, and a glass of white Meursault. Nobody ever believes me when I tell them that they're also making reds in Meursault, and that consequently, it is better to specify that we're talking about some white Meursault. Not talking about you of course… Mouth: it just needed time. These old woods always need time, but when they reach 25 or 30, it's Broadway. As is the case here, with tropical fruits and more white Meursault, honey, mints, flowers, almonds… Finish: medium, perhaps a tad woody now, with some pinewood and cinnamon, cedar… But those lovely oranges are back in the aftertaste. Comments: exactly what you need to show your friends what time does to whisky (not wood, not wine).
SGP:551 - 87 points. |
|
Glentauchers 21 yo 1997/2019 (54.3%, The Single Malts of Scotland, Elixir Distillers, barrel, cask #390, 158 bottles)
I agree we should have done this session in 2019, but I suppose we were busy with Glentauchers bottled in 2016 or 2017. Ha. I promise we'll try not to taste the newer ones in 2025… Colour: white wine. Nose: a huge bag of grapefruits for starters, then a wee coconut/vanilla mix, then papayas and beers. No recrimination. With water: cassata, barley syrup, white chocolate… Mouth (neat): well in the taste of those fine people in London. Clean and fruity, with some maracuja and guava, some unusual mentholated notes (not exactly menthol, not exactly something else), plus the best a proper American Standard Barrel can give us in the coconut/vanilla genre. With water: in the style of that 1990 by Cadenhead when watered down. Finish: medium, smooooth, fruity. Orchard fruits this time, plus a little honey. Comments: easy high-fruitiness, it's got all what's needed, only its memorability score is maybe not the highest ever (what are you talking about?)
SGP:651 - 87 points. |
|
Glentauchers 10 yo 2008/2019 (57.2%, The Whisky Cask, first fill oloroso sherry butt)
We're really stuck in 2019! Colour: amber. Nose: good fun! Scrap metal, shoe polish, Barbour grease, paraffin, Maggi, parsley and coriander, soy sauce… Looks like the butt was rather a, a, let's say an Ozzy Osbourne of casks. Rather loco. With water: brilliant. Fern and mushrooms, humus, compost, then toffee. Mouth (neat): total fudge and toffee, chocolate, roasted nuts (pecans, brazils, peanuts…) With water: artisan chocolate and all those nuts once more, plus a few savoury touches, BBQ sauces, walnut wine… Finish: long, with the polishes and all the metallic parts back within the combo. Comments: one of those mortadella whiskies. You love it but you do not want to know how they make it. Seriously, I love it, even if it's the sherry butt that's done all the work.
SGP:462 - 87 points. |
Good, we've got so many, we've been so sloppy with Glentauchers… So maybe a last one, and I promise we'll do another, perhaps larger Glentauchers session "extremely soon'. |
|
Glentauchers 13 yo 2009/2022 (48%, LMDW, Artist Collective, first fill sherry butt, 1686 bottles)
That's two butts wedded for ever. Colour: deep gold. Nose: a tad lactic at first, with some mashed potatoes, then on fudge and nougat, caramel cream (or crema catalana), buttered caramel, butterscotch and cappuccino. Pure sin in a bottle, I'd love to know whether the two casks were very different or almost identical. For research only… Mouth: excellent. Feels pretty stronger than just 48%, starting very cakey, with perhaps a few pencil shavings, then we have cereals, chocolate roll, those all-famous Mars bars, dark chocolate, chocolate fondant, gianduja, Nutella (distillers and bottlers, I hope you all accept my profound apology)… Finish: rather long, while this remains almost liquid chocolate, with a little jam inside (mango, perhaps). Comments: first class young loudly (yet smartly) sherried Speysider. Huge chocolate.
SGP:551 - 87 points. |
So, Glentauchers, see you soon… |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
