The Malt Cask

Distillery:  The Glenlivet Bottler:  Gordon & MacPhail Age:  74 years old Distilled:  01/01/1949 Bottled:  06/03/2023 Cask:   Refill Sherry Butt Abv:  49.3% Unchillfiltered:  Yes Natural Colour:  Yes Nb of bottles:  192 Extra:  Cask #1 1 (Private Collection) My tasting notes: Nose: Rich & oaky, old bookcase, candied orange, rich silky caramel, macadamia nuts, brown sugar, dark fruit, hints of candlewax, stewed caramelised apples, linseed oil, hints of smoke, slight leather. Wow… Palate: Concentrated flavours, old wood, polish, leather, treacle, oak spice, hints of ash and cedar wood, mouth coating & waxy, dark dried fruit. After a few minutes, some green mint appears, orange, slight umami. Stunning! Finish: Long lasting, fruit & nuts, oak spice, slight smoke still, prunes, dried mangoes, hints of earthiness. With water: More sweetness on the nose with more fruit/orange. The palate gets more citrus & some old b...

  https://vintagebottlersltd.com Third instalment in my Vintage Bottlers release reviews and today it’s the turn of their 29 year-old Secret Series Speyside Single Malt. Again, no name on the label but we get coordinates and a quick map search takes us straight to the Glenlivet distillery… Aged for 29 years in what I presume was an ex-Bourbon cask, it was bottled with no chillfiltration or colouring and at the natural cask strength of 44.8% Time to sample it then! My tasting notes: Nose: Fragrant, full of fresh fruit, citrus, lemon and orange, white peach, kiwi, green banana, almond, oak spice, slight milk chocolate, lemon sherbet, crème anglaise and some malty notes too. What a start with such a range of aromas dancing in the glass! Palate: Fruity again, sweet and creamy. More citrus, lemon and white peaches, some mandarine, sweet and spicy oak, some vanilla fudge, fresh orange peel, green pears and green melon. Deliciously fruity! Finish: Creamy, almond praline, drying oak, a ...

Being on holidays allows me to attend a few more tasting sessions at the Whisky Shop Manchester. I was there last Saturday for their "new release" session, and on Wednesday again for their Japanese session, which I will present in a future post.  Today is about the 5 new releases that we got to try last Saturday, and here was the line-up: 1. The Loch Fyne Living Cask Batch 4 (43.6%) 2. Inchmurrin 12 years old (46%) 3. Glen Ord 11 years old Hepburn's choice single cask  (46%) 4. Glen Scotia Double Cask (46%) 5. Ardbeg Dark Cove (46.5%) Out of these 5, Dark Cove is the one I was most looking forward to as I got to try the Committee release at the distillery and really enjoyed it. We started with the Living Cask from Loch Fyne. The idea for the Living Cask is that the company started with a vat of single malts, took 1/2 to release as batch 1 and topped up the vat with fresh single malt, and repeated the process for batch 2, 3 and now 4. In case you ...

Not a proper full-on tasting as such today -as I haven't bought a bottle of it- but I did however get to try the new Glenlivet Cipher at Selfridges Manchester. Cipher is the latest Glenlivet release, it is exclusive to Selfridges (on the UK market) and as you might be able to work out from its name and mat black bottle, it is a bit of a mystery as far as the whisky is concerned. No information on the label regarding age, casks used, tasting notes, type of maturation... apart from the fact that it has been bottled at 48% and that it costs £110. Whether you consider it a publicity stunt, a way for a distillery to over-charge the customer or a great way to get back to the basics of smell and taste, you cannot deny that it is surrounded in mystery. It is supposed to be a limited edition too. I was told 1,200 bottles only, but doing a bit of research about it, it seems like the 1,200 limit is for the UK market only. When you consider that Cipher is available in 25 different coun...