GLENROTHES 2007 - ADELPHI

When you shop for distillery bottlings of Glenrothes, you'll notice that almost all of them carries a vintage year, as in all the whisky in the bottling comes from that particular year - a good thing when lots of other distilleries releasing No-Age-Statement whisky... That said, so does Glenrothes, but not to an extend where its taken over their product range - I like that!

Normally, I'd say that you have to go for Glenrothes at the age of 12+ to get the best balanced tipple from this distillery, but sometimes, you just stumble across a younger bottling from an incredible active cask that just creates a massive flavour profile.

The Glenrothes, I'm about to review is one such - and it's also an indie bottling at high strength as, sadly, most you ever see from the distillery itself is either 40/43% bottlings.

A couple of stills at The Glenrothes Distillery, May 5th 2012 © The Malt Desk 

Glenrothes 2007 7yo 67,5%, 1st fill spanish oak sherry hogshead#3523, 329 bottles, Adelphi

Colour is mahogany

Nose:
Lovely sherried nose, with an abundance of dark fruits, plums, prunes and raisins, but also strong coffee and dark chocolate. With its kick it reminds me a bit of Aberlour A'Bunadh, but far from as sweet as the Aberlour... and also less oily. Also a slight burnt caramel note to it.

Taste:
Gentle arrival in spite of being 67,5% alcohol. Prunes and orange notes dominate along with a hint of something BBQ-like/smoky but fades quickly and gives away to espresso/crunchy coffee bean notes. The finish turns slightly bitter with hints of dark liqueurs (Tia Maria/Kahlua), pepper and alcohol nip. Not incredibly complex, but what it does, it does
really well.

I love this, very straight forward and hugely enjoyable!

88/100!