Glen Grant 5 yo 1967 (100 proof, Peter Thompson Ltd, 1970s)
The Peter Thompson bottlings are far scarcer than their G&M counterparts - I suppose they were a smaller company and did far fewer of them - but I always found them to be of high quality on the occasions I’ve been able to try them. Colour: straw. Nose: typically austere, grassy, petrolic and chalky. This vividly bitter lemon and crushed aspirin profile. Some green pepper and dried wildflowers too. Very attractive for those that enjoy this more punchy and austere style. But probably a bit too singular for some. With water: becomes a little greener and lighter, mosses, ferns, petrichor, toasted oatmeal and a little eucalyptus. More playful overall. Mouth: much richer and more honeyed in the mouth. Flower honey, pine resins, breakfast cereals dusted with icing sugar, lemongrass and various dried herbs. Well balanced and quietly beautiful I’d say. With water: excellent now! Terrifically oily and satisfying texture with many waxes, hessian cloth, metal polish, bouillon stock, mechanical grease and a few more glimmers of pollen and honeycomb. Finish: long, drying, peppery, lightly dusty, minty and more on cereals, chalk, limestone and bitter lemon again. Comments: Personally, I adore this, although I recognise some parts - the neat nose in particular - might be a little divisive with this rather assertive austerity. Still, quality and general charisma of the distillate are very high in my view. The kind of bottling that everyone should endeavour to try if they want to grasp older style Scotch whisky characteristics I think.
SGP: 462 - 88 points.

Glen Grant 8 yo (100 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, late 1970s)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: a big, leafy, creamy, meaty and earthy sherry. Lots of gunflint, rancio, game meats, balsamic and walnut oil. Punchy, fatty and pretty powerful. Not a million miles away from those old, dark vatting cube bottlings of Aberlour at 50%. Really evolves along meaty lines with all these animal fats, meat broths, mutton, bone barrow, gravy and leathery notes. With water: still very fatty but there’s a few glimmers of prunes, sultanas and figs now. Strawberry jam and some rather opulently fruity muesli. Mouth: beautiful arrival, slick, oily in texture, rich and yet also balanced with plenty of syrupy dark fruits keeping those meatier aspects in check. Some pipe tobacco, leaf mulch and wine cellar must in the middle of it all too. With water: drier, leaner, earthier and fresher. Some gun metal, old toolboxes, camphor, putty, mushroom powder and even some cereals fighting through. Finish: long, leathery, drying, some dark chocolate and soy sauce coming through in the aftertaste. Comments: pristine, young sherried Glen Grant. These kinds of bottlings were the A’bunadhs of their day I suppose.
SGP: 561 - 91 points.

Glen Grant 15 yo (100 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, -/+1975)
One of the darkest batches of this I’ve seen. This one comes with a price sticker on the top of the cap which says £10,09p, which in today’s money is equivalent to £77,00. But before you all holler about ‘the good old days’, that was a very expensive bottle at the time, and many indy bottlers would release a 15yo Glen Grant for not too dissimilar a price in today’s market… Colour: amber. Nose: close to the 8yo in many ways, but there is just this extra depth of concentration and complexity going on here. Stunningly leathery and honeyed with many pollens, walnuts, sticky dark fruits and bags of rancio. in time there’s also more tropical elements coming through, guava jam, dried mango and lime. With water: many preserved dark fruits, jams, old cognacs, rancio, chocolate and a few smashed Brazil nuts. Mouth: warm, spicy and darkly fruity at first. Lots of sultana, raisins, pomegranate molasses, treacle, soft sooty notes and soy sauce. Also coffee, bitter chocolate and green walnut liqueur. Getting increasingly earthy and herbal with time. With water: stunning now! A perfect balance of fruits, earths, chocolate, spices and rancio now. Finish: long, meaty, leathery, sweetly fruity, concentrated and deeply earthy with many wee touches of tobacco, old Cognac and chocolate. Comments: … now, about those brand new £77 Glen Grants, I suspect precisely none of them would be hitting this level of quality. Therein lies the rub.
SGP: 662 - 93 points.

Glen Grant 46 yo 1972/2019 (44.8%, Berry Brothers ‘Exceptional Casks’, cask #8240, refill oloroso sherry butt, 159 bottles)
I have it on good authority that this cask really was discovered in a warehouse, as opposed to ‘discovered’ on a spreadsheet. Colour: amber. Nose: it’s different from the many 72s bottled about a decade ago by the likes of Duncan Taylor et al. This is more concentrated on ripe fruits galore. Baked apple, rhubarb crumble, mango chutney, banana liqueur. A kind of fruit schizophrenia. Also rather a lot of fruit jellies and sweeties, very confectionary. Beyond that there’s some more elegant sherry notes such as balsamic glaze and rosewater. Luscious and superbly elegant. Mouth: drier and more on tobaccos, dried flowers, dried citrus peels and crystallised exotic fruits. Many notes of various fruit teas, mint leaf and quite a bit of pollen and tea tree oil. Not as lush as the nose, but then isn’t that so often the case with old whiskies? Evolves with these softer bread notes and things like orange peel, dark chocolate and miso. Getting deeper, earthier and more towards lemon peel, herbal bitters and Turkish delight. Finish: medium and rather resinous, some tannic black teas, stewed dark fruits, bitter chocolate and tobacco. Comments: At times you would think it’s too tired, but then it punches right back. Quite an evolution on display and probably captured in the nick of time. Loved the meandering fruitiness that keeps veering from the dark to the exotic and back again.
SGP: 651 - 91 points.

Glen Grant 31 yo 1970/2001 (55.4%, Adelphi, cask #1036, sherry)
Colour: black coffee. Nose: take three parts beef stock, one part mole sauce, a modest punnet of pipe tobacco and another 3 parts top quality dark chocolate and then garnish with some freshly brewed espresso! Really, this is the kind of out and out sherry bomb that seems to increasingly belong to the past. You can also find many extremely concentrated dark fruits drenched in an even mix of aged dark rum and old Cognac. All about the sherry, but the sherry is rather pristine so far so we cannot complain. With water: gets more bitter, all on superbly punchy dark chocolate, freshly brewed office coffee, pumpernickel bread, natural tar extract and old school herbal bitters. A whole dunnage warehouse of damp earth! Still wonderfully clean. Mouth: big arrival all on pure chocolate sauce, some smoked chilli, coffee and walnut cake, soy sauce and some kind of mad beef soup. Many notes of various meat stocks and reductions - seriously, you could season enough risotto for an Army with a bottle of this. Very deep and hyper concentrated. Some black pepper and strong black tea. With water: calmer and a little more cohesive for sure, but this is still big. BIG sherried whisky. Suet, mutton stock, venison salami, black pepper, soy sauce, hessian, old leather and bitter almond cordial. Finish: super long, densely meaty, sooty and with big notes of fig jam, prune juice, cranberry sauce and some kind of ancient, rather dark Calvados (Lemorton 1926!) Comments: The sherry will be too much for some, but because it remains clean throughout and by some miracle doesn’t totally desiccate your gums, I think it’s a pretty superb old drop. Not too many other whiskies could dance to well with such a bonkers cask.
SGP: 572 - 91 points.

Glen Grant 1963/1986 (59.4%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #9.2)
Colour: coppery amber. Nose: a pickle of boozy fruitcake and then many fruit preserves and jams. Apricot conserve and also a lot of fruit eau de vies, the rather rustic kind that you can find in Alsace made annually by humble artisan marketing executives in attractive rural villages. Becomes serious sweet and syrupy, really doubling down on apricots, peach schnapps and hints of orange oil, kumquat and very old dessert wine. There’s flower honey in there alongside all these jams, along with glazed pastries and some wild strawberry. Quite beautiful and rather ‘different’ from what you might expect. With water: it’s a little calmer now and more on breads, dried fruits, tobaccos, lychee, rosewater, aged calvados and lemon peel. Also some subtle floral aspects in the background. Compelling and deeply eloquent whisky. Mouth: warming, deeply complex and again very concentrated and syrupy. Piles more apricot, stewed apple, exotic hardwood resins, satsuma, some very old Cointreau, old calvados, crystallised lemon peel and spicy chai tea. Even brings to mind things like incense and pot pourri, then various dried herbs like oregano and tarragon. There’s a lot going on you feel like you are pulled in multiple directions. With water: really terrific now. More powerful, more deeply complex, many dried fruits, earthier notes, more tobaccos, some treacle, putty, mineral oil, animal furs, bouillon stock - just endlessly entertaining and fascinating. Finish: super long, very focussed on herbal and exotic fruit teas, mango jam, lemon peel (again), light sooty touches, camphor, putty, resinous herbal notes and some eucalyptus. Comments: I feel this is a whisky that somewhat defies categorisation. I would guess it’s from a sherry cask but it really feels deeply idiosyncratic and individualistic. There’s so much divergent and deviant stuff going on, it’s like if you liquified all five seasons of The Wire and consumed it in one go. Anyway, superb old Glen Grant, yet again I’m afraid.
SGP: 661 - 92 points.

Glen Grant 40 yo 1959/1999 (48.9%, Whisky Club of Austria, released in 2007, 22 bottles)
I’ve never been sure if this one had been released elsewhere under a different label, it was from a small parcel of unlabelled stock acquired by Heinz and Konstantin of Whisky Club of Austria back in 2007. Anyway, it carries a lofty reputation. Colour: amber. Nose: as they say in Glasgow: ‘Ohh La La!!!’ A stunning cocktail of exotic and dark fruits alongside game meats and the kind of fruity and earthy complexity you usually find in very mature red Burgundies. Mushrooms, smoked dark chocolate, miso, soy sauce, salted liquorice and natural tar. Eucalyptus oils, herbal teas and an ocean of rancio. Just spellbinding and utterly exquisite I’m afraid! In time it almost doubles down of this sort of smoked chocolate sauce profile. Mouth: majestic. A perfect fusion of sticky dark fruits drenched in ancient cognac, with strong earl grey tea, aged soy sauce, cured venison, more natural tar notes, long-aged herbal liqueurs, very old balsamico, pine wood and walnut wine. So dark and dense and deeply concentrated and thick, and yet not the slightest bit tired. On the contrary, it’s alive and fresh and vivid and brimming with potency. The tannins are soft and creamy and peppery but never aggressive. Just so wonderfully dense, sumptuous and gorgeous. We’re getting carried away now, apologies. Finish: endlessly long and riddled with tobaccos, waxed hardwoods, crystallised exotic fruits, aged teas, dried herbs and cured meats. Comments: I’m really teetering on the brink here in terms of scoring. I was at 93 but the finish was just incredible and there’s only a handful of bottles so who cares. Amazing whisky and big thanks to the lovely gents who had the presence of mind to do something fun with it back in 2007.
SGP: 672 - 94 points.

Glen Grant 5 yo (70 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, 1960s)
I’m sure we all know how influential old batches of Glen Grant 5 year old from G&M were in Italy in the 1960s? I think it’s also important to remember that such bottlings - like this one - were also to be found throughout the UK as well. Remember, Glen Grant was kind of the ‘Macallan’ of its day in terms of popular consensus about ‘quality’. Anyway… Colour: very pale white wine - with an almost green tinge. Nose: No wonder the Italians loved it so much, this is really Scottish grappa! Wonderfully grassy, green, slightly vinous, mineral, lightly oily and with abundant fresh, crisp cereal and bread notes. Wee touches of fabric, marrow fat, bouillon, Scotch broth and some wonderfully rustic sheep wool. Raw, old style barley eau de vie. Mouth: seriously, this is almost like tamed new make with this punchy grassiness, rustic vegetal tones, cornflakes dusted with icing sugar, some rather potent olive oil - in texture as well as flavour - and some nicely deft waxiness and toasty cereals. Finish: medium, peppery, canvass, cereal, lamp oil and sunflower oil. Comments: Everything about this, from the age, to the bottling strength and most of all the flavours, is pure old school. I cannot imagine many contemporary distillates showing with such confidence at this kind of age and strength which provides the spirit precisely zero space or woody sweetness to hide within. Now, having said all that, it’s probably also something of an acquired taste.
SGP: 341 - 86 points.

Glen Grant 8 yo (40%, Moray Bonding for Armando Giovinetti Jr, 1960s)
I just love these old presentations featuring the thistle stencils on the glass. Interesting to see that it wasn’t only G&M that was using them. Colour: light straw. Nose: several shades fatter and more oily. It’s easy to see why drinkers at the time would have considered 8 to be a rather mature age with this kind of profile on display. Much more petrol, mineral oil, soot, gentle waxes, oily sheep wool and things like chamomile and soft medical tinctures. Also a good deal more natural sweetness like malt syrup and honeyed porridge. Mouth: the ABV feels a bit soft here, but these flavours of waxes, marrow fat, mutton soup, vegetable broth and barley water are all very pleasant and charismatic. In fact you get a lot of shared DNA with the 5yo but with an added layer of wood activity and gentle, herbal-accented sweetness. Finish: medium and getting drier and more towards white pepper, flinty minerals, gentle petrol notes, lemon pith and dried herbs. Comments: Highly quaffable, but just 3 more degrees alcohol would have carried it far better I think. Anyway, beautiful distillate as ever.
SGP: 452 - 84 points.

Glen Grant 12 yo (75 proof, Moray Bonding Co, UK market, 1960s)
Colour: deep coppery gold. Nose: beautiful! Another style entirely with this very nervous, ethereal cloak of sherry that’s draped over everything (to think, there’s an entire Facebook thread on Malt Maniacs about the use of the word ‘nervous’ in tasting notes - what a time to be alive!) Beyond that though there’s all these wonderful herbaceous, earthy and tobacco notes. Raisins, caramel fudge, putty, strawberry wine, cafe latte and eventually this wonderful rancio quality. Just superb! We’ve really struck ‘old Glen Grant’ now. Mouth: impeccably dry, nutty, saline and rancio sherry. Green walnut liqueur, Irish coffee, natural tar, herbal extracts, old bitter ointments, dried tarragon, verbena and wormwood. The word that comes to mind here is ‘complexity’. This pitch perfect marriage of sherry, distillate and time. Finish: wonderfully long, thready, nervous (!!) and full of more of these saline and nutty sherry touches. Earthy, waxy and with lots of crystallised citrus peels. Comments: There’s probably quite a lot going on here, but my initial thought is: what a difference 43% makes! There’s just that extra wellspring of power that lifts everything that much higher while retaining poise and balance. Just pure pleasure in a glass!
SGP: 462 - 92 points.

Glen Grant 19 yo (45%, OB for Italy, Armando Giovinetti Jr import, 1960s)
One of these rather scarce but almost always totally excellent old official ‘cube’ bottlings for Italy. Colour: pale gold (yes!). Nose: just beautiful! A ballet of waxes, shoe polish, crystallised citrus and exotic fruits, wild herbs, tobaccos, roots, medical embrocations and all kinds of furniture and mineral oils. One of these aromas where the distillate is rich, vibrantly fresh and expressive and yet you still get the wood in perfect harmony with these wee coconut touches. Mouth: soots, waxes, root vegetables, metal polish, natural tar, potent herbal cough medicines, waxed lemon peel, olive oil and even hints of saltwater - maybe salty pasta water, this was for Italy after all! Wonderfully mineral, herbaceous, hugely waxy and with a thrillingly oily and mouth-filling texture. Finish: long, nicely peppery, again lightly vegetal, honeyed, waxy and full of wee notes of salted mead, herbal medicines and dried tarragon. Comments: A wee poem in a bottle. No wonder the name Glen Grant carried such a reputation, what an utterly phenomenal distillate this distillery rattled out.
SGP: 563 - 93 points.

Glen Grant 8 yo (100 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, miniature, 1970s)
This one with a large white capsule so probably late 70s I suspect. Colour: gold. Nose: A much leaner and more powerful style. Full of wet leaves, moss, snapped twigs, earthy potting sheds and then bags of raw barley, porridge oats, plush cereals, buttery toast and a big spoonful of golden style and barley sugars. Evolves to become more honeyed and approachable with a little breathing time. You can also find wee flourishes of waxes and herbs. Quite superb but absolutely a geek’s whisky style I would say. With water: rather more buttery and oily now, with sweet cereals, dried mint and things like putty and lamp oil. Superb and very old school. Mouth: big, fatty, herbal and waxy. With an almost greasy vegetal quality that feels somehow both textural as well as flavoursome. More leafy and mulchy notes, petrichor, herbal teas, citronella and a wee hint of nutmeg. With water: honeyed, waxy, peppery, lightly spicy and full of gentle notes of lightly smoked teas (lapsang souchong, earl grey) mineral oil, shoe polish and menthol tobacco. Finish: long with a rather thready waxiness, some white pepper, cinnamon, olive oil and more notes of shoe and metal polishes. Comments: At times tough, but with water and patience you are rewarded with unvarnished, old style glory. I also love that there is a definite vein of DNA running from the 19yo into this wee miniature.
SGP: 472 - 89 points.

Glen Grant 8 yo (100 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, miniature, 1970s)
This one has a smaller gold screw cap and slightly sleeker bottle, which means properly 1970s, probably around mid-70s. Colour: straw. Nose: indeed, this feels already like a slightly earlier style of distillate. It’s overall more elegant, but certain characters within are more direct and punchy, in this case particularly the herbal aspects. Lots of dried and freshly chopped herbs with various ointments, medical tinctures and cough syrups. It’s also beautifully honeyed. Lots of mead, barley sugar, dried mint and some lovely emerging notes of proving bread dough. Natural, understated and extremely attractive. With water: linens, chalk, pollen, dried meadow flowers, white bread and crushed aspirin. A little lighter on its feet and a notch more medical now. Mouth: powerful attach with more of these really punchy notes of herbs, but also now with freshly crushed ferns, moss and other greenery, mothballs, syrupy cough medicines, green peppercorns, fermenting honey and mineral oil. Fatty, dry, tautly structured and showing some lean and rather crisp minerals and acidity. A wine drinkers’ malt like so many of these pale old Glen Grants. With water: herbal extracts, pinewood sap, ink, soot, cough sweets, citronella, lemon balm and more rather textual vegetal notes. Finish: long, emphatically oily, waxy, weightily textured, faintly lemony and with many wee tertiary notes of crisp cereals, fresh fabrics, hessian, chalk and white flowers. Comments: Amazing that this wee mini would stay so pin-sharp and bright after what must be 40+ years in the bottle. The power of these old Glen Grants seems indomitable.
SGP: 462 - 91 points.

Glen Grant 8 yo (100 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, miniature, 1970s)
An almost identical bottle except that this time the capsule is white and the liquid is a few shades darker. Which of course in those days could just as easily have meant caramel as sherry. Colour: bright gold. Nose: hmmm, I think we may have struck sherry! A stunning mix of fatty, swollen waxes, putty and cooking oils mixed with delicate preserve fruit jams, conserves and cordials. Lots of old hessian, leather, dunnage earthiness, raisins in brandy, wee notes of fennel and caraway and this ever-present, persevering herbaceous complexity. A hug in a glass! With water: perfectly balanced now! Breads, tobaccos, herbs and medicines, but also fresher, more exotically fruity notes of mango and tinned pineapple. Mouth: Gah! Brilliant! Uber powerful and yet riddled with tobaccos, dark fruit chutneys, olive oil, mineral oil, camphor, putty, myriad medical ointments and superbly waxy textural thickness. With water: same story as on the nose, the fruits begin to take over. Here they are also joined by fruit salad syrups, tinned lychee and plain old runny honey drizzled on some cornflakes. Finish: long, fatty, gloopy fruit syrups, mineral oil, waxes, pollens, old Chartreuse and ink. Comments: What a glorious wee thing. Why have we been letting miniature collectors get away with hoarding these things for so long!?
SGP: 662 - 92 points.

Glen Grant 10 yo (100 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, late 1970s)
Back to one of the later chunkier bottles now with a bigger white screw cap, but this time with the capacity included in old imperial measurements, so probably bottled sometime around 1976/77. Colour: gold. Nose: it’s a very grassy and austere one. Very punchy, slightly aggressive, lightly vegetal, chalky and plenty of mineral oil and graphite. These vegetal aspects become more assertive over time and you still feel this peppery heat. Some softer herbal complexities emerge in time. With water: lighter fluid, moss, lemon peel, white mushrooms, gravel, carbon paper and some sort of Scottish broth soup. Pretty whacky but fun. Mouth: Gah! Intensely alcoholic at first. Really, only 100 proof you say? Now, it’s still got a lot of very nice flavours, it’s just that they’re really wrapped up in raw fire. More vegetable stocks, soups, mutton, oily sheep wool. brittle waxiness, cavass, clay and crushed aspirin. With water: (not being shy with the water here…) much better, and more cohesive I’d add. Still very peppery but more in terms of flavour than heat intensity now. Lots of pink, white and green pepper, paprika, Moroccan fruits in muesli, earthy turmeric, pollens, preserved lemons and even candle wax. Quite a ride! Finish: long, rather salty, some coal dust, sheep wool, lemon peel, some green asparagus maybe, lanolin, medical balms. Getting a little too acrid and dusty in the aftertaste, OBE? Comments: Phew! I couldn’t tell you how much of that was due to whatever kind of mad journey this wee Glen Grant has undergone in its 3rd class miniature carriage over these past decades and how much was down to original distillate character or cask. Bags of entertainment, but not ideal if your thing is, you know, ‘enjoying whisky’ while watching a film or something. But then again, I’m not yet convinced those sorts of people are reading Whiskyfun ;)
SGP: 372 - 79 points.

Glen Grant 10 yo (100 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, 1970s)
This is an interesting one. Bigger bottle again with a big white capsule, but with the diagonal red lettered age statement which recalls the older 1960s and early 70s style G&M presentations, and a larger printed ‘100 proof’. I’d guess around mid-1970s but we are really scraping the barrel of my mini knowledge here. Colour: orangey gold. Nose: sweet stewed fruits mixed with petrol! Sultanas, damp earth, plum wine, orange oils, herbal liqueurs, nutmeg, pollens, wee touches of quince and some more tropical notes of guava and dried mango. Superb and very much towards an older, sherry-accented style. With water: softer, wider, more towards breads, pastries, lilies weighted with pollen, apricot jam and mirabelle. Once again evolving towards more sweet tropical fruit notes in time. Mouth: really on tobaccos, herbal cough medicines, lemon cough drops, dried mint, darjeeling tea and a rather salty, punchy sherry profile. Some pretty earthy tobacco notes too. With water: drier, waxier, dustier, more earthy, peppery, lemony and with wee glimmers of star fruit, kiwi and lime. Some kind of mixed exotic fruit curd along with glazed pastries and almond croissant. Finish: long, with quite a few bitter citrus piths, herbal bitters, waxes, putty, mineral oils and aniseed. Comments: Definitely an older one I’d say, and the interplay between sweeter fruits and breads and dried earthy and herbal tones is really compelling here.
SGP: 661 - 90 points.

Glen Grant 12 yo (100 proof / 57%, Gordon & MacPhail, miniature, +/-1980)
Another larger shaped bottle and a big white capsule again this time. With the addition of metric measurements we should be comfortably within spitooning distance of 1980. Colour: pale gold. Nose: quite a different style. Much grassier, greener, more floral and full of pollens, plain cereals, lightly buttered toast, vase water, hessian and clay. We’re creeping towards this lighter but still rather old school Glen Grant profile which to me feels like the late 60s distillates captured at a younger age. This one remains beautifully fresh, green and vibrant with many subtle complexities emerging including olive oil, beeswax, carbon paper, bouillon and chopped parsley. With water: wonderfully mossy now with lots of twigs, bracken and petrichor. Ink, carbon paper, dried herbs, honeycomb and shoe polish. Mouth: rather fierce on arrival with lots of struck flints, petrol, lime oil, hessian, white pepper, ink and crushed aspirin. Also things like cut grass, cactus and raw vegetables. Very good but a more austere expression. With water: easier and more towards old school boiled lime and lemon sweets. Cornflakes dusted with icing sugar, rapeseed oil and sweetened darjeeling tea. Finish: long, getting slightly earthy, still vegetal and herbal, also more peppery and punchy again. Comments: Another really great one, although it’s perhaps not quite as luminous as those wee 8yos.
SGP: 461 - 89 points.