Tastings de la Muerte: Glentauchers


May 21, 2025

Tastings de la Muerte: Glentauchers

Glentauchers Distillery (Anne Burgess / geograph.org.uk)

The principle is simple: one single distillery, loads of versions, chosen entirely at random, over several days, not necessarily in a row, until we throw in the towel or move on to something else.
Actually, I ought to explain the situation: you may already know that we make a point of regularly tasting malts from all Scottish distilleries, though of course the number of expressions of each we receive varies wildly. This means that for the more ‘abundant’ distilleries—especially from the indies—like Glentauchers in this case, the stocks tend to pile up much faster than our tasting pace can keep up with. Which is why, from time to time, we have to do a bit of a ‘clear-out’ with some of them. But alas, we’ll never manage to taste everything, very sadly…

Glentauchers 15 yo 2008/2023 (46%, Gordon & MacPhail, Distillery Label)

G&M really have done a great deal to raise the notoriety of Glentauchers, they ought to be awarded a medal for their efforts! Colour: pale gold. Nose: it’s gentle, on garden apples and pears, groundnut oil, a little white nougat and some baker’s yeast. This may not be of extraordinary complexity, but yes, it’s genuinely charming. Mouth: it’s good, actually rather rich in the end, with a touch of sherry, some orange, still those apples and pears, and a wee note of liquorice. Finish: fairly long, fairly soft, malty, very fruity, apples and oranges, with cinnamon and pink pepper. Comments: bang in its lane, very, very pleasant, flawless, really.
SGP:641 - 85 points.

Glentauchers 7 yo 2014/2021 (51.7%, SingleMalt.pl, PX sherry octave, cask #142)

Colour: gold. Nose: oily to the nose, also chalky, yeasty and mineral. Lovely notes of turrón, PX (but of course). With water: a little malt extract, onion jam, fig preserve, a touch of Nescafé. Mouth (neat): big PX, in a cappuccino and toasted hazelnut style, which works very, very well. With water: slight meaty hints, orange marmalade, cracked pepper, sultanas, young rancio. Finish: long, spices rolling in, tamed by the dried fruit. Comments: cracking little creature from Poland. We’re just a bit late to the party, yet again.
SGP:641 - 86 points.

Glentauchers 16 yo 2008/2024 (46%, Royal Mile Whiskies, sherry butt, cask #900255, 885 bottles)

Even reduced to 46%, nearly 900 bottles from a single butt, that’s not bad at all. Colour: gold. Nose: a wee marvel of pecan pie drizzled with honey sauce, alongside a glass of Sauternes and a few Turkish delights. Mouth: same story, we’re very, very close to the G&M style, tarte Tatin, crema catalana, peanut butter and baked apples. Finish: long, on orange zest and a sauce of caramel and honey. Comments: this feels very ‘Elgin’, it’s really very good, nothing to complain about.
SGP:641 – 86 points.

Since we’ve come this far…

Glentauchers 23 yo 2000/2023 (55.8%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice for Kensington Wine Market, 1st fill sherry hogshead, cask #16602001, 329 bottles)

Colour: amber. Nose: lovely sherry, with a little gunpowder to begin, then bags of black nougat, very dry currants, a touch of crème de menthe, proper old oloroso, and hand-sliced pata negra—never machine-cut, heavens no! With water: whoof, gas, truffle, charcoal… Mouth (neat): that modelling clay quality returns alongside the gunpowder, clearly a touch of sulphur, then fig marmalade of the interstellar kind. The presence of this sort of sulphur can trigger debates of galactic proportions, as we know. With water: water only boosts the sulphuric side. It’s like with some mineral waters, some love the sulphur, others loathe it. Finish: long and even more sulphury. The worst part is, it’s all terribly coherent. Leather and bitter almonds in the aftertaste. Comments: very hard to score, it really is a sulphur story.
SGP:362 - 83 points.

Glentauchers 33 yo 1993/2024 (51.9%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, Lost in Time, refill American oak barrels, cask #5218, 108 bottles)

Chivas and TWE at the helm here. Colour: pale gold. Nose: we’re in complex territory here, poetic even, bordering on nostalgic—old meads, honeys, farmhouse ciders… It’s truly very, very beautiful, delicate, almost Proustian (is it not?). With water: oh yes, almond milk, honeys, precious green teas, tanning oil, blond tobacco... Mouth (neat): it’s reminiscent of the 1972s. But why does 1993 so often echo 1972, across all Speyside distilleries? Honeys and waxes, bruised apples, tiny floral and herbal notes, hay, borage, pansies… With water: an unexpected arrival of faint maritime touches. Finish: not very long but outrageously elegant, with a woodiness more discreet than a cat stalking a mouse. Comments: an ode to time. And 33 years—the age of you-know-who!
SGP:551 - 91 points.

Glentauchers-Glenlivet 14 yo 2009/2023 (50%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection, bourbon hogshead, 264 bottles)

Colour: pale white wine. Nose: it’s immaculate, the cask was probably as idle as a particularly militant French railway worker, but there’s a lovely lemon nougat drizzled with honey and scattered with bits of toasted pistachio, atop the usual apple and pear combo. With water: lovely—let’s forget about French railway workers, they’re a bit too demoralising. Mouth (neat): it’s very good, fresh, close to barley, green apples, lemon, meringue and stewed rhubarb… With water: not much need for it on the palate, it gets a bit too grassy, nearly lawn-like. Best skip the water. Finish: medium length, taut, herbaceous indeed. Comments: better to shelter these babies from water, though that may not be the orthodox approach.
SGP:451 - 82 points.

One last one for today…

Glentauchers 11 yo 2011/2023 (51.5%, Club Qing, Kraken Go with the Flow, fino hogshead, cask #800436, 179 bottles)

Now then, Hong Kong. Colour: deep gold. Nose: slightly metallic, with tobacco, medlars, frozen sorbs, bread dough, a few ashes and green walnuts… The fino must be the culprit behind all this. It’s forgiven at once. With water: a hint of compost, paraffin oil, a bit of papier-mâché… Unusual but charming. Mouth (neat): quirky combo—leather, resinous oil, pepper, bitter chocolate, walnut liqueur, nocino, pumpkin seed oil… With water: same again. Slight touches of damp cardboard. Finish: medium length, rather earthy, really lovely but the fino leaves an unusual footprint. Comments: great finos are mythical beasts, but their influence on our whiskies might be, pure speculation of course, a bit uncontrollable. We saw the same with some Ardbegs, a good twenty years ago.
SGP:461 - 84 points.

By the way, loads of Ardbeg coming up soon on WF, as we should be doing our usual remote Feis Ile sessions, but in the meantime, there’s still plenty of Glentauchers to come, so stay tuned.

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