Glossy Glenlossie, a retrospective


April 3, 2024

Glossy Glenlossie, a retrospective

Yes, we keep hoping to win the World Whisky Award from Whisky Mag for the world's silliest title of a blog post or article. Of course, they're out of the competition since they're the ones organizing it.

Glenlossie Distillery (Iain Macaulay - Geograph)

Anyway, get ready, we're going to have a tremendous amount of Glenlossie, and I'm not exaggerating. Recent ones, old ones, young ones, aged ones, all in a wonderfully haphazard manner, just the way we like it.

Glenlossie 12 yo 1977 (62.4%, James MacArthur, cask #4992, +/-1989)

This one did exist as a full bottle but it was rare, the larger part of the cask having been filled in miniatures. Back then, folks were collecting miniatures and drinking bottles; strange behaviour, we agree. Glad to taste a James MacArthur that we haven't tried yet. Colour: straw. Nose: lemon juice, grass juice and paint thinner. Nothing to worry about, this was totally normal, given the pedigree. With water: fresh croissant, leaves, green apples, clay, porridge, lager, corona (with the bit of lemon)… Mouth (neat): awesome eau-de-vie de barley but boy is it potent. It tends to try and turn your world upside down a bit. Huge grassiness. With water: fruits coming out, melons, mirabelles, also fir bud liqueur… Now a lot of grass remains, it would even become pretty peppery. Finish: long, raw, peppery, grassy, but with some nice barley syrup that smoothens it up a bit. Comments: pure blending stock – filler. Charming and raw.
SGP:561 - 85 points.

Glenlossie 20 yo 1997/2017 (51.7%, Signatory Vintage, for Feinkost Reifferscheid, Germany, hogshead, cask #6766, 272 bottles)

Colour: gold. Nose: deeply on the fruits of a vicarage garden in the heart of Europe. Apples and pears, peaches, crushed cherries, all kinds of plums, a touch of shortbread, a bit of marzipan... With water: a tiny bit of cardboard and paraffin, then a comeback of apples, even some rough cider. None of the horrors that they sell in cans or on tap! Mouth (neat): very ripe, with fruit wines, artisanal apple juice, rowan and service tree liqueurs, hops... With water: it moves towards fresh almonds and walnuts, which suits me very well. Finish: quite long, with apple peels and a bit of dark chocolate and black tea. Comments: very pretty bottle. I imagine it's been a long time since our German friends finished it all off.
SGP:551 - 87 points.

Glenlossie-Glenlivet 22 yo 1993/2016 (54.8%, Cadenhead, Small Batch for The Netherlands, bourbon hogshead, 210 bottles)

Colour: straw. Nose: cider vinegar, lovage and Maggi! Hurray! Then back to regular apple juice and other western fruit juices. With water: virgin wool, a Peaky Blinder cap, porridge, crushed slate, a bit of fresh mushroom... Mouth (neat): very very good. Williams pear eau-de-vie at the helm here, not Maggi. With water: melon liqueur, a little mead, more pepper. Finish: long, rather on tinned peaches this time. Comments: excellent. I suppose our Dutch friends have done to this bottling what our German ones have done with theirs.
SGP:551 - 86 points.

Glenlossie 17 yo 1998/2015 (54.3%, Hunter Laing for Vive la Vie, hogshead, 250 bottles)

A bottling for Asia. Colour: white wine. Nose: chalky white and yellow fruits, apples, pears, barley, a little wax, a little putty, herbal teas, a little blancmange, sorb berry eau-de-vie… It's rather whispering and pretty delicate. With water: grassier and a little more on pot ale. Mouth (neat): good fruits, a touch of turpentine, green plums, apple peel… With water: more leaves and slightly inexpressive fruits. Old apples from a charming old apple tree. Jujubes. Finish: medium, rather soft. Some green tea. Comments: a rather leafy one. Very nice but perhaps not immensely inspiring. A shame that SingleMaltTV is dead, we could have asked, 'what's up on SingleMaltTV?'
SGP:451 - 80 points.

Glenlossie 8 yo 2013/2022 (52.5%, Fadandel, 1st fill oloroso sherry octave finish, cask #11147, 62 bottles)

A 1st fill oloroso sherry octave finish, what could go wrong? Seriously, they do good at Fadandel, as we could notice on several occasions. Colour: cognac. Right, that's a colour. Nose: holy Petronella (she's one of Angus's friends), this is full of Mars bars and millionaire shortbreads. Treacle toffee, corn syrup, Tia-Maria coffee liqueur, maple syrup… And of course that works. With water: no changes. A drop of English brown sauce, perhaps. Mouth (neat): liquid Mars bars, some walnut wine, some amaro, some bitter oranges and just more coffee liqueur. With water: a drop of gravy and a little more bitterness, Cynar and things. Nocino too. Finish: long, drier and leafier than expected. Dark toffee and Nescafé in the aftertaste. Comments: looks like the octave behaved.
SGP:651 - 85 points.

Glenlossie 11 yo 2012/2023 (63.5%, Signatory Vintage, 'Plume' for LMDW, 1st fill oloroso sherry butt)

Just between us, I doubt this one will be very 'plume' (which means feather in French). Colour: rich gold. Nose: total chocolate, coffee, chicory, malt extracts, Ovaltine, dried pears, bananas and mangos, praline, drop of armagnac… With water: tighter and grassier. Fern, tomato bush, aubergines… Mouth (neat): big caramel, muscovado, oversteeped black Assam (remember we use Assam but could be any black tea), chen-pi, stout, more Ovaltine… With water: it does not become hugely grassy this time, it would rather move towards bitter almonds and walnuts, spicier masala, tobacco, raw cocoa… Lovely yeasty touch in the background (fresh chocolate cake). Finish: very long, on chocolate, herbs and, yep, Ovaltine. Comments: by the way, I'm still waiting for my weight in free Ovaltine, as they had promised me quite some years ago.
SGP:461 - 87 points.

Glenlossie 13 yo 2006/2020 'Forget Your Way Home' (59.5%, Whisky Facile, Italy, refill bourbon hogshead, cask #3296)

We should get closer to the core of the distillate here. Forget Your Way Home, that's a nice product promise (but don't tell your husband or wife about it). Colour: straw. Nose: raw herbal and waxy style. Whiffs of verbena and absinth, will those remain…? With water: concrete, grasses, cactus, leaves, slate… It's really not the Rio de Janeiro carnival – I know what I'm trying to say. Mouth (neat): very solid, firm, a little fruity but also very waxy and grassy. No compromises, as they say. With water: plasticine and paraffin coming out, green peppercorn, leaves… Finish: rather long, a little bitter, leafy, peppery. Comments: more like an austere monastery whisky. Amen. Very holy but not very 'facile'.
SGP:461 - 84 points.

Last one please, but there will be many more pretty soon…

Glenlossie 2008/2017 (61.7%, Gordon & MacPhail, Cask Strength, 1st fill sherry butt, cask #6775)

It was the end of an era for those 'CASK' bottlings that turned so many heads over the decades. Colour: straw. Nose: once again a grassy, herbal one, this time with a little more chocolate. Fig leaves. I think it is a little strong… With water: grass cake, tea cupcakes… Mouth (neat): awesome mentholated coffee (indeed) but also a massive pepper that takes your tongue hostage. I do not believe anyone was expected to try this one neat, like this. Silly us. With water: ah there, some fruit peel, melons, banana skin, holly eau-de-vie, wee berries… It's good, but once again, not quite 'the Rio carnival', neither is it a gig by Kid Creole and The Coconuts. I know. Finish: rather long but still grassy and leafy. Comments: pretty good but not very easy.
SGP:461 - 83 points.

What did we learn? That Glenlossie was a pretty grassy malt and typically a 'filler'. But we'll have many more very soon, to make sure…

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