Glen Garioch 11 yo 2011/2023 (53.2% Hidden Spirits for Rudder, cask #1123, 1st fill bourbon barrel, 267 bottles)
Colour: pale white wine. Nose: creamy and waxy, but with a nicely chalky and slightly gristy quality as well which brings a sense of balancing dryness. Gets also quickly very bready and yeasty, going towards top notch blanc du blanc Champagne, then a few yellow flowers such as dandelions. Really enjoying the evolution of this one, and all the big 'white wine' vibes, which are always welcome in these naked highlanders. With water: on lemons, waxes, sheep wool and more of these green notes that suggest vase water and crushed nettles. Mouth: very close to the distillate, young, green, chalky, waxy and with quite a bit of vase water and chlorophyll. Also, peppery watercress and tarragon. With water: a little straighter, in that it's quite dominated by grasses, cereals, chalk, dry waxes and peppery notes. Finish: medium, drying, peppery and with a nice flinty mineral touch. Comments: I like these young Glen Gariochs, but they are rather powerful and punchy drams. I can imagine these casks at 20+ years old will be sensational. 
SGP: 461 - 85 points. 

Glen Garioch 18 yo 2003 (58.3%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 19.50 'A Special Treat', 1st fill barrel, 186 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: you spot the similarities, it feels straight away like the same weight of distillate, but this is broader, deeper and more dominated by heather honey and some beautiful notes of citrus curds, preserved exotic fruits and fruit salad juices. Also a pang of something slightly lactic, like mango lassi, and some classic waxes and vanilla sponge cake. With water: more peppery and feeling overall drier, punchier and more full of breads and cereals. Mouth: lovely balance between the sweetness and spice of the oak, and the juiciness, waxes and fruits of the distillate. Feels like an exemplary 'modern highlander' in this regard. A few more green fruit notes and a nudge towards grasses and nettles in a way which is close to the 2011. With water: as on the nose, it becomes drier and more cereal, with more peppery notes, more waxes and more mineral characteristics. Finish: good length, perhaps missing some of the overt fruitiness of the undiluted palate, but with excellent notes of waxes and olive oil. Comments: big, grown up, modern, highland malt whisky that displays excellent distillery character. 
SGP: 561 - 87 points.

Glen Garioch 31 yo (54.6%, Elixir Distillers 'Macbeth Act One: The Thanes', four bourbon barrels, 600 bottles)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: a decisively old school shift, with many waxes, honeys and dessert wine vibes. Also orange blossom, yellow plums, citrus curds and juicy fruit chewing gum. These citrus notes develop very beautifully towards things like lemon peel and aged cheng pi, also quite a few fruit tea notes coming through as well. With water: orange marmalade, lime leaf, herbal bitters and cigar 'stuff', like cedar wood boxes and humidors. Mouth: good arrival, even though the oak nibbles a little bit here and there, the general sense of waxes and honeys remains loud and clear. It's also more orangey, with old Cointreau, orange liqueur and old-fashioned cocktail impressions. A few resinous herbal notes and things like dried mint and fir wood, along with camphor and putty. With water: wee notes of coconut water and gorse flower, along with a resurgent flavour of flower honey, nectars and pollens. A slightly peppery and spicy waxy character, along with some strongly brewed fruit teas. Finish: long, on flowers, nectars, green and exotic fruit cordials and a drying, peppery finish. Comments: really excellent, but a little too much wood here and there prevents it hitting the 90 mark in my wee book. Lovely old Glen Garioch though. 
SGP: 561 - 89 points. 

Glen Garioch 40 yo 1973/2014 (54.3%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, #4297, sherry butt, 138 bottles)
Colour: reddish mahogany. Nose: peat and old-style sherry, at great age, reaching a perfect singularity! Stunning notes of hardwood resins, herbal cough syrups, big umami notes such as Maggi and black olive tapenade, and then natural tar resins, delicate wood smoke and teas such as lapsing souchong and pu erh. Also liquorice root and a rising herbal liqueur vibe. Beautiful and definitely a lost style of whisky. With water: magnificent, even deeper, richer and broader in profile. Stunning earthiness, many tobacco and cigar qualities, a whole humidor of aged, unlit cigars, walnut liqueur, very old dry oloroso and the best dark chocolate. Mouth: amazing arrival, undeniably assertive woodiness, but it's never astringent, instead it's full of stunningly detailed spices, fresh espresso, natural tar, bitter herbs, lovage, bouillon and game meats. All perfectly integrated with these resinous peat and medicine notes, dried flowers, incense and wormwood. A whisky that shouldn't work, but absolutely does. With water: becomes velvety in texture and develops a stunning chocolatey note, along with salted liquorice, bay leaf, more natural tar and more camphor notes. Also many darker fruit notes emerging, such as cassis and bramble cordial. Juicy, dark and outrageously velvety in texture. Finish: long, back on earthy black tea, green Chartreuse, orange cocktail bitters, clove and aniseed. A perfect bitterness that involves chocolate, coffee and Maggi lingers into the aftertaste. Comments: casks like these are truly rare occurrences in whisky, and arguably totally extinct these days. An amazing fusion of ancient sherry and old style peated highland distillate. 
SGP: 474 - 92 points. 

Glen Garioch 29 yo 1968/1997 (56.9%, OB, cask #623, sherry hogshead)
From a bottle that my friend and business partner, Jonny McMillan, has just opened and which he's including in an old and rare bottle tasting in partnership with his former employers, Berry Brothers, in London next month. I believe there are still tickets available... Colour: reddish coffee. Nose: the same territory as the 1973, but this is another level. The same stunning fusion of peat and sherry, but the peat is more prominent here and it is also much more opulently on dark, luscious fruits. Raisins and sultanas soaked in very old Fins Bois cognac, fig jam, dark fruit chutneys with very old balsamic, prune molasses, date syrup and toasted fennel seed. The interplay of dark fruits, sub-divided old peat and various herbal inclusions is just utterly gorgeous. With water: saltier, more rugged, leaning slightly more towards the sherry now with these stunning earthy, salty and sherry bodega vibes. Also artichoke and green walnut liqueurs with soy sauce and Iberico ham. Mouth: immense, totally stunning, immediately call the anti-maltoporn brigade please! Not sure they can get here in this weather, we'll just have to persevere... the peat is so thick, dense, amazing dry, peppery, herbal and even vegetal; a style that reminds me of some much older 1940s Highland Park bottlings we opened on Orkney around ten years ago. Also a massive slug of very old Clacquesin tar liqueur. So many tiny subtleties and details that we could be here for hours, but really this is a whisky about immensity, controlled power and force of personality. With water: censored! We're off, lost in that zone where the whisky has taken the lead and you are left scrambling to keep up. Finish: immense, almost extreme, and comedically long. A whisky that laughs over its shoulder at you! Comments: the 40yo was stunning, but this one, captured at a younger age, is just in another galaxy. Whisky that almost physically forces you to re-examine your own ideas about quality and flavour. 
SGP: 566 - 94 points.