Glossy Glenlossies, part three


April 16, 2024

Glossy Glenlossies, part three

My mother always told me that one should finish what they've started. I've particularly taken this advice to heart with bottles of Brora and old Clynelish, but I also promised you that we'd finish our tasting of Glenlossie that we started on the 3rd of April. So let's get it done quickly…

Glenlossie 18 yo 1997/2016 (54.1%, Ramseyer's Whisky Connection, 120 bottles)

Colour: gold. Nose: typical green fruits, gooseberries, greengages, kiwi, then pure grass and candied angelica. Tends to become fruitier. With water: whiffs of copper polish, that's nice. Lovely earthiness, mosses, humus, very old tree stumps… Mouth (neat): much sweeter on the palate, and certainly kind of old-school, with touches of old wine barrel, musty mushrooms, and then bags of dried figs. With water: more of that musty old-schoolness. You'd almost believe this was a very old bottle of high-malt-content blended Scotch. Finish: pretty long, on similar flavours. Comments: as if they had tried to replicate a bottle from the 1950s, it's even a little smoky.
SGP:562 - 88 points.

Glenlossie 25 yo 1993/2019 (53.9%, Valinch & Mallet, bourbon hogshead, cask #19-2501, 203 bottles)

Colour: straw. Nose: the clarity and roundness of a good bourbon cask, with some exceptional and adorable fresh parsley and watercress in the background. Where does that come from? With water: add peaches and a little gunflint. Mouth (neat): high-precision malt, no wood, no wine in the way, just lemons, aromatic herbs (wormwood, more cress) and fresh dough. We call these the immaculate ones; they even bear something monastic. Amen. With water: barley sirup, barley sugar, preserved peaches, toffee apples, some tighter honey. Finish: not immensely long but all on some lovely sweet barley-y notes. Ale and even hops in the aftertaste. Comments: perfect work of time, this is almost a Patek Philippe. A quartzless one, naturally – so to speak.
SGP:561 - 89 points.

We're too slow…

Glenlossie-Glenlivet 23 yo 1993/2017 (53%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection, bourbon hogshead, 216 bottles)

Colour: gold. Nose: this one's more on nougat, praline, roasted peanuts, fudge, dandelion honey (awesome honey), even white chocolate, sweet beers and wines… With water: gets grassy, perhaps not in the best of ways. Garden compost. Mouth (neat): rougher this time, grassy indeed, a tad acetic and pretty peppery. Not my favourite side. With water: some bizarre and unexpected mentholy notes. Turpentine and fern where they do not quite belong, shall we say. Finish: long, a little green, grassy and astringent. Odd turpentine-y side. Fir. Comments: some great sides but also some wobbly ones, in my humble opinion. Still a very good dram, naturally.
SGP:461 - 80 points.

Glenlossie 1977/2003 (45%, Samaroli 35th Anniversary, cask #633, 360 bottles)

All right, we already tried this one, but that was 18 years ago and we had had found it a little underwhelming (WF 84). But it's a Samaroli, so just to be on the safe side… Colour: white wine. Nose: it's all on barley syrup, apple juice, fresh bread and brioche… All nice but let's not call the Guinness Book yet. Mouth: herbs, saps, resins and some kinds of sweet waxes chiming in. Some sweet herbal liqueurs, peppers, more waxes… Hints of yellow chartreuse from a fairly recent batch. Finish: pretty long, tighter, more peppery. Juniper berries and coriander seeds. Comments: the palate was really sappy and resinous, almost too bitter. I think we'll keep our old score – not that that should mean much, we agree.
SGP:361 - 84 points.

Glenlossie 10 yo 2013/2023 (56.4%, Watt Whisky, hogshead, 264 bottles)

This one from the coolest part of the Wee Toon, by far. Colour: very pale white wine. Nose: pure apple juice. No, say 80% apple, 15% pear and 5% lime. Add some barley sugar, some fennel seeds, stir well… With water: add some hay wine. Ever tried hay wine? They make some in the Vosges mountains. Mouth (neat): everyone needs such a bottle in his cabinet. Pure malt whisky, no unwanted flavours, a wee greasy/waxy/oily side and just megatons of rustic apples. With water: a few other fruits creepin' in, tangerines, lemons, gooseberries, small plums 'that never totally get ripe'… Or small fruits that need frost. Finish: medium, sweet, barley-y, all-natural and totally honest. Comments: I hate to add that you could probably make some awesome cocktails out of this awesomely humble young malt whisky. Cocktails!
SGP:551 - 85 points.

Glenlossie 10 yo 2009/2020 (59.2%, The Single Malts of Scotland, hogshead, cask #6435, 121 bottles)

Colour: deep gold. Nose: classic vanilla, apples, peaches, m eadow honeys, sweet malted barley and tangerines. Right, those tangerines aren't that classic. With water: sameish. Mouth (neat): really punchy, with some excellent chalky/spicy citrus, citrons, ginseng, turmeric, coriander seeds… This was a pretty talkative hoggie. With water: tiny hints of curry, ginger, and abundant zests of all kinds. Bitter oranges. Finish: old Dutch genever and Italian bitters. Viva Europe! Comments: exactly the opposite of the Watt Whisky, and yet I find them both of the same high quality. Exile on Main St. vs. The White Album.
SGP:661 - 85 points.

Glenlossie 10 yo 2010/2021 (49.7%, The Single Malts of Scotland, hogshead, cask #8755, 152 bottles)

Colour: very pale white wine. Nose: take apple juice, add crushed chalk and slate, plus grist and sourdough. If you like malt whisky, you'll like this, and if you like this, you'll like malt whisky. Lousy tautological reasoning, I agree. Mouth: sweet barley, ale, cider, with a lot of ginger, turmeric, bitterer zests, pepper… I think water would be needed on the palate. With water: touches of glue, paraffin, propolis… That's bizarre, let's drop water. Finish: long, a little green, but rather wonderfully chartreuse-y. Comments: this one's a little more difficult to handle, but that makes for a good part of its charms.
SGP:551 - 84 points.

Glenlossie 11 yo 2011/2022 (52.8%, Morisco Spirits, Marble Collection, bourbon barrel, cask #35485, 287 bottles)

Are we not breaking some kind of record you and me, with this many young Glenlossies in a row? Colour: white wine. Nose: pure barley sirup and sweet cider, plus orange blossom water and panettone. Milk chocolate and gianduja. With water: towards brioche dough and raw uncooked white asparagus. Freshly broken branches. Mouth (neat): fudge, Szechuan pepper and ginger. Really hot, that's strange, 52.8 is not that high, is it. With water: some oilier texture, otherwise plain and pure 'average' malt whisky. Finish: medium, a tad leafier. Comments: none, it's just very good.
SGP:451 - 84 points.

I think we're reaching the limits of such an exercise. All very good, none exhilarating. What's on on b***y Netflix? No wait, our heart is willing, so Montjoie St-Denis, let's just go on!... It is true that, in theory, at least in the old days, single casks were particularly outstanding barrels, exceptional in character. This might imply that it makes no sense to bottle dozens or even hundreds of identical or similar barrels as single casks, does it?

Glenlossie-Glenlivet 24 yo 1993/2018 (53.6%, Cadenhead, Single Cask, bourbon hogshead, 240 bottles)

Their latest golden age, shall we say, it is true that they have had several over the ages, since the days of Aberdeen. Colour: gold. Nose: awesome bananas, acacia honey, white chocolate and chamomile tea. No grasses at all this time. A little coconut though, never the best side of any whisky. With water: oops. Green bananas. Mouth (neat): very good, very sweet, fruity, bourbon-driven and pretty banana-y indeed. Big pepper. With water: sweet, liqueury. Banana wine, tarte tatin, caramelised apples, new-world chardonnay. The new world means China, right? Finish: rather long, waxier, with some nougat and white-flower honey. The finish is the best part. Comments: ups and downs. Rather up but it's not Maggot Brain either, right.
SGP:651 - 86 points.

A last one, but we may go on tomorrow or later, coz we've got many other Glenlossies to taste…

Glenlossie 9 yo 2010/2019 (55.4%, James Eadie, re-charred hogshead, cask #2478, 290 bottles)

It's a bit sad that you couldn't re-char people. Like toxic dictators… But I agree, no politics! Colour: light gold. Nose: pure syrupy barley, maple syrup, light honeys, dried pears, vanilla fudge… It's very re-char indeed. With water: sweet ales and ciders. Mouth (neat): very good young boosted malt whisky. Perfect wood tehknohlohgy (trying to mimic the Scottish accent here) but it would tend to become really very cinnamony then. With water: yeah, fine, good, okay, not bad at all, just a little oaky. Finish: medium, on maple syrup. Good for pouring over pancakes for breakfast. Nicer oranges on the aftertaste. Comments: perhaps not the best one by James Eadie ever. It's true that it remains a 9 yo Glenlossie. What's on TV tonight?
SGP:551 - 82 points.

Well, it turns out we have more Glenlossie than I thought. See you tomorrow.

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