Tasting Notes: Glen Garioch: 12 Year

Glen Garioch: 12 Year (Scottish Highland Single Malt: 12 Years: 48% ABV)

Visual: Slightly bronzed gold.

Viscosity: Generally slow and middling length streaks. A few fast chasing streaks.

Nose: Marzipan. Sugared almonds, very sweet and light. Light planed wood. Hint of smoke. Water brings out stewed apples.

Body: Oak front. Golden syrup. Custard and dried apricot.  Milky chocolate. Pears. Water makes apple crumble and oak come out, overall much more fruity with water.

Finish: Almonds and chocolate. Pear drops. Tiny meat broth occasionally. Light oak. Cinnamon. Water makes much more chocolate emphasis come out.

Conclusion: This is really smooth, and if I didn’t know better I would have called it as Speyside for its sweet and fruity style. It has a bit more punch that usually for the fruity sweet style though, probably due to the slightly higher than average abv. No bad thing though. In fact I would advise against watering it down too much because while a drop or two really helps it open up it very quickly looses that extra force and thickness that really helps it stand out from the crowd.

It has a lovely luxurious chocolate finish and a delicate sugar and fruit nose to set it top and tail. It brings you in easy and heads out smoothly.  In fact while it is different in flavour the texture and class reminds me of the pacing on its fellow highland whisky Dalmore.  In my opinion that’s a very good whisky to be like, and the lovely fruitiness means that it brings nearly completely different flavours in with the same stylish touch.

Overall an impressive mix of style and fruit, and stewed and dessert in its flavours.  It balances the extra force with great ease of drinking in the flavours. It isn’t one for long sipping session neat due to that extra force, but works well that way watered down a touch. Neat I would say it would be great post dessert whisky.

A nice introduction to the distillery.

Background: Drunk at “the Tasting Rooms” who usually have a nice selection of less common whiskys.  I’d been meaning to try this one for a while, it being yet another distillery I had yet to try.  Apparently the pronunciation on the name is Glen Geery. Yeah, I would never have worked that one out. Drunk with friends who were similarly enjoying a range of spirits and commenting which gave a nice tasting atmosphere.