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Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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August 5, 2025 |
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Four Glen Grants, three aged 30 years and one old 12
(a session that nearly failed)
Remembering that Glen Grant was the star, before other more heavily marketed brands started muscling in on the market. We’re talking fifty years ago, aren’t we. Here, let me give you an example to illustrate the point…
(In the 1980s, all brands were running more or less the same adverts, here Glen Grant in Italy.) |
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Glen Grant 12 yo (43°GL, OB for Armando Giovinetti, Italy, 75cl, +/-1970) 
In a square bottle. Colour: gold. Nose: unbelievable medley of stewed fruits, candied fruits, peat, ashes, coastal notes, old toolbox, waxes and beeswax polish, all delivered with unfathomable mastery. There. Mouth: implausibly fruity smoke, with incredible fatness, waxes, camphor, a touch of gentle turpentine, mountains of candied fruits and sultanas… Only the relatively modest strength might be considered a tiny flaw after all these years. This, at 100° proof! Or indeed 100° Gay-Lussac. Finish: yes, not tremendously long, but splendid, with marrow dumpling broth and smokiness in the aftertaste. Comments: one wonders why Giovinetti seemed to have moved on to Macallan a few years later…
SGP:652 - 92 points. |
Right, now three bottles aged around 30 years, simply arranged in order of increasing strength… Good luck to them, after the 12-year-old Giovinetti… |

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Glen Grant 29 yo 1995/2024 (45.6%, Signatory Vintage for Wu Dram Clan, bourbon barrel, cask #88198, 1996 bottles) 
Colour: straw. Nose: this is a basket of fully ripe pears and apples, completed with a little barley syrup and acacia honey, with only the faintest mentholated touches. A few vineyard peaches also saunter in after a few minutes. It’s simple, pinpoint, perfect. Mouth: the apples and custard glide over the pears in this subtle and curiously refreshing mix, which then unfolds into lime blossom, thyme honey, then a few citrus notes and a slightly mentholated pepper that grows increasingly assertive. Finish: medium to short in length, slightly more on the herbal side, which is quite expected. Comments: an old whisky that’s fresh and fruity, more of a ‘drinker’ than a sipper, if you see what I mean. We love it here.
SGP:641 - 89 points. |

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Glen Grant 30 yo 1994–1995/2025 (46.6%, Decadent Drinks, Whiskyland, Chapter 14, 360 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: I’m terribly sorry and must offer my deepest apologies to the gentlemen at Decadent & Land, but this is, for all intents and purposes, the same whisky as the previous one. If you dig really deep, you might find a very slightly more exotic note, but that would be it. Mouth: perhaps a touch more tension, and a slightly more pronounced herbal side, though that may well be down to the extra 1% ABV. Finish: the same story. Comments: truly sorry, but this is the kind of problem that sometimes arises when our tasting lineups are a little too, perhaps overly, consistent. In short, another top Glen Grant to gulp down with no further justification than taking sheer pleasure.
SGP:641 – 89 points. |

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Glen Grant 30 yo 1994/2024 (57.5%, Milroy’s 60th Anniversary, bourbon barrel, cask #10045) 
The honourable bottlers remind us on the back label that Glen Grant was being offered as an official single malt as early as the 1930s. Colour: straw. Nose: zut alors, the same phenomenon occurs, this one just seems a little closer to herbs and leafy greens, along with lemon peel, though that may stem from the significantly higher bottling strength. With water: perhaps a chalkier touch. Mouth (neat): on the palate it feels tighter and more nervous when at cask strength, a little ‘greener’. With water: it’s almost identical to the others at similar strength (more or less). Finish: same again. Comments: same again.
SGP:641 - 89 points. |
The deciding factor: you shuffle your glasses at random, then try to figure out which is which once they’ve all been reduced to a similar strength. Here, it’s virtually mission impossible, except, of course, for the sublime 12-year-old Giovinetti. |
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