GLEN GRANT 1970 35YO - DUNCAN TAYLOR RARE AULD

It's always something special to try whisky distilled the year you were born. (Darn, now I gave away that I'm an old fart!). This one, however, is just that bit more special to me as I just love, love, love old sherry matured whiskies. It wasn't that long ago that I had the chance to try a 1968 40yo sherry matured Longmorn, which was absolutely stellar - and as with the Longmorn, my expectations for this Glen Grant were quite high.

So what makes these super delicious old sherry matured whiskies?
Well, besides a good base spirit there's the obvious sherry cask... and in these cases just not any sherry casks. IMO, we just don't see sherry casks of that quality these days. 40-60 years ago, people were drinking a lot more sherry than they are today and as a result good sherry casks are hard to come by these days, which is not only reflected in the quality of the casks but also in the price... An ex-bourbon cask these days goes for around £100 where as a sherry cask is about £1000. You can read more abut the decline in the sale of sherry in this article by The Drinks Business from 2015.

As the sale of sherry drops, the need for long term storage of the wine is also declining and you don't get the wine transported in their original casks either as e.g modern bottling halls now does most of the work with the bit of sherry that does get bottled - so there's a few factors to consider when you look at the number sherry casks going in the whisky industry today... Many sherry casks have for a good number of years now also been American oak  sherry casks (typically sherry hogsheads) and not of European oak like they traditionally were - like 40 or 50 years ago with these glorious single casks used to mature e.g. the Longmorn and this Glen Grant

The decline in available sherry casks have for decades now made some whisky companies to broker exclusive deals with sherry bodegas in Spain. As with all business models this is both good and bad as some casks are filled with low quality sherry wine and then infused into the wood under high pressure. When the wood then has been 'sufficiently influenced' the casks are emptied and the 'sherry/wine' is just poured away or is sent away to be distilled into brandy as the quality of the wine often isn't good enough for it to be sold as sherry on its own... I'm not saying this happens with all the sherry casks in the whisky industry today - I'm just saying it happens - and from what I'm told, more often than we would like...

There are still some good sherry matured whiskies out there, make no mistake about that, but I'm yet to be convinced that we'll see a quality of both casks and bottlings like the ones that hit the market just a decade ago...

Glen Grant Stillhouse, April 29th 2011 © The Malt Desk

Glen Grant 1970 35yo Cask#812, 120 bottles, Duncan Taylor Rare Auld

Colour is dark mahogany

Nose:
Raisins, strong cold coffee, dark chocolate, soy sauce, polished oak, blackcurrants, cooked apple, burnt sugar, dark old rum, licorice and cigar humidor. There's tonnes of Xmas notes in here too... cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a slight herbal note followed by a bit of refreshing menthol and musty bung cloth

Taste:
Quite vinous at first, old squeaky clean oloroso sherry giving away to prune juice, alcohol soaked raisins, wet tobacco leaves, cocoa, more blackcurrant but also unsweetened strawberries jam, ancient Port wine, oak spices. There's also some fruity notes coming through if you let it sit for a while (it's hard, I'll tell you that!!) overripe plums and apple are kept at bay by drying notes of cinnamon and clove. Eventually, the quite intense flavors gives away to some salivating malt and drying wood notes...

Another stunning old malt !!

93/100!

GLEN GRANT 1954 - GORDON & MACPHAIL

Elgin-based independent bottler and Distillery owner (Benromach), Gordon & Macphail has launched a campaign to enlighten people's perception on how much the cask means for the maturation of whisky.

The campaign is called 'The Wood Makes the Whisky' and comes complete with a booklet and a website (www.gordonandmacphail.com/wood) explaining the casks are chosen to match a specific spirit and how the wood interacts with the spirit and resulting in that lovely tipple we all enjoy so much. All the very well made angles on maturation incl. wood types, time and cask sizes are covered in both the booklet and on the very well made website - good job!

'The Wood Makes the Whisky' also comes with almost a handful of samples and I'll start in the deep end with this Glen Grant. No bottling year is given on the sample, but looking at bottling dates for the released versions, this is probably around or just over 50 years old.

The still at Glen Grant, April 29th 2011 © The Malt Desk

Glen Grant 1954 40%, 1st fill sherry butts, Gordon & Macphail

Colour is chestnut

Nose:

Picture by G&M

This just reeks of old whisky. Lots of red fruit and figs soaked in alcohol. Given some time the whole experience turn more towards tropical fruit, a direction I didn't expect from this old sherried number. Also in here are freshly polished hardwood and a little licorice.

Taste:
Quite a powerfull presence and incredibly mouthfilling even at only 40%. Overripe/browned apple, dark honey and Wiener Melange but heading in a spicy/herbal direction. Dark fruits, moist raisins springs to mind later. There's a mint theme popping up on the finish along with what can only be described as an almost smoky/toasted feel, which suits this oldie quite well as everything is very well integrated. This finish just goes on and on... and on :-)

This is most certainly a blast from the past - amazing stuff!

91/100!

Official sample provided by Gordon & Macphail

GLEN GRANT 1985 - A.D. RATTRAY

I came across this Glen Grant bottling just recently at a very fair price for a 24yo Cask Strength whisky these days (£70) so I decided to put this one in the basket while I was shopping for something else - and I'm glad I did :-) and its not often you see bottlings like this from 2010 still around...

I'll get right on with the review...

Glen Grant washbacks April 29 2011 © The Malt Desk

Glen Grant 1985 24yo (20.09.1985/20.02.2010) ex-bourbon cask#12364, 210 bottles, A.D. Rattray

Colour is bright gold

Nose:
Ripe fruit, pear and peach, ginger, oak spices, vanilla and hint of varnish/glue and sometimes a hint of metal on the nose. Wood sap, grass and lots of creamy malt comes out with the addition of water

Taste:
Ahh nice, lovely arrival on vanilla cream and fruit... top that with a dash of something peppery. Water brings out distinct orange notes, malt and honey. This is maybe at times a tad sharp'ish but adding a bit of water levels this one out beautifully

A very nice Glen Grant for sure!

86/100!

GLEN GRANT 1992 - ADELPHI

Glen Grant Distillery in the village of Rothes in Speyside is quite a large distillery, but its tucked well away at the north west end of the village. It does have its own exit on the village round-about, so getting there is quite easy...

The distillery was founded back in 1840 and was up until somtimes in the early 1970s still in family hands. Then ownership went to what later became Pernod Ricard/Chivas Bros up until 2005 when Italian drinks company Campari bought the distillery and now produces around 6.000.000 liters of spirit per year. Much of this is actually sold in Italy at a very young and refreshing 5 year old, supposedly drinking well over ice in the Italian summer. Today, I'm sure Pernod Ricard wish they'd never sold off Glen Grant now that demand is increasing everywhere.

Being such a large distillery casks go out to the independent bottlers as well, most noticeable Gordon & Macphail in Elgin, who, for quite some years now, have bottled and sold Glen Grant for the company. This, however, will, if not already, soon come to a stop as the distillers themselves can offload it all these days.

This review from another indie bottler, though, and a favourite of mine - Adelphi.

Glen Grant still house, April 29th 2011 © The Malt Desk

Glen Grant 1992 21yo, 56,6%, ex-bourbon barrel#141974, 219 bottles, Adelphi

Colour is straw

Nose:

Fresh malted barley, apples and pears, some cookie dough, has a very fresh feel to it and also somewhat of a young'ish feel as well- like there's been very little cask influence going on here.

Taste:

Very sugary, pears again, avocado and some notes of baking and cereal, very little spice and a burst of citrus and a little mouth burn on the finish. Its all just too well behaved for me... but its still god whisky.

I'd say again this comes from a fairly inactive cask, which can sometimes be fun... but this time its just a bit on the dull side

82/100!

WHISKY AND CHOCOLATE PAIRING

Thursday April 24th I hosted at whisky and chocolate pairing at the local whisky club. I tried this first around 3½ years ago at Aberlour Distillery in Speyside and had often thought that it actually works quite well with whisky and chocolates.

My experience prior to the Aberlour event ammounted to having Port with chocolates - but that was 'only' with high cocoa content chocolate...
This time though, I thought I'd go all in and try the pairing with chocolates from Danish luxury chocolate producer Summerbird - the website's in Danish or use Google translate on the website... anyway, I'm sure you can get an idea of what their products are like :-)

Now what am I going to highlight in this post? Well, I thought I'd focus a bit on why I made the specific paring and, of course, on what worked and more importantly what didn't work - that, and of course a few tasting notes on the whiskies...

The bottles in tasting, April 24th 2014 © The Malt Desk

First pairing:

Springbank 15yo 46% (bottled mid 00's)
Praline Petit Four with organic raspberry cover

Why this pairing?

The Springbank 15yo normally has medium light sherry influence along with salty sweet notes and a mild smoky trail.. or at least this was what I counted on with this one as I've had versions of it on numerous occasions before.
Instead I found this Springbank very peaty with thought going towards the Longrow expression from Springbank Distillery, being oily with dried fruits, honey, malt and very peaty as mentioned above. This goes to show the small batch production they do at Springbank and underlines their status as one of -if not- the last craft distillery in Scotland.

This comes in at a score of 86/100!

Did this pairing work?

Yes, it did! Besides from the whisky being far more peaty than expected, it showed great form and spririt quality - no doubt about that. The praline had the right texture and mouthfeel to compliment the light sherry and also actually the very noticeable peat and the raspberry rounded the experience off with a light red fruit influence working very well in neutralizing the peat from the whisky.

If I have say 'but' here, I could have wished for a slightly more noticeable influence from the raspberry. This was not a miss at all, just a slight bump with the Springbank being more peaty than expected.

Second pairing:

Macduff 2000 11yo 60%, 1st fill sherry cask#5774, Berry Bros. for The Whisky Barrel
Chocolate truffle w/ licorice

Why this pairing?
Macduff is usually a bit of an odd whisky. It's also sometimes marketed as Glen Deveron and as that its far from a malt that will rock your world. Old Macduff however can be great and the particular bottling used in this tasting has gotten some good and even great reviews, so this was what my pairing was pretty much built upon.

The nose on this one extremely sweet, almost in a Pedro Ximinez style. It doesn't state what kind of sherry cask is used, so its possible its a PX cask. Also loads of dark fruit mint and orange here. The palate is very overpowering and mouth coating with its massive sweetness, bit of anise, milk chocolate and a little dirty (spent fireworks) on the finish.

This scores a very nice 87/100!

Did this pairing work?
The majority of people at the tasting seemed to think so as it was voted best pairing.
It wasn't my personal favourite pairing, but I agree that the sweet creme licorice and very powerful sweet sherry matched up very well as the licorice prevented the sherry from overpower the experience.

Third pairing:

Arran 121.61 2002 10yo 61,1% 'Pulled pork with Chocolate mousse', The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Chocolate truffle w/ raspberry (heavy)

Why this pairing?

I tried this Arran when it first came out in the Autumn of 2013 and just knew right away I had to get one - actually I was lucky to even get one as it sold out at the 1 year birthday bash of Danish branch of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. This has a dry nutty, oloroso sherry profile with dried fruit, mainly raisin and prunes, Vienna roast coffee, and still - quite amazingly due to its heavy sherry style - a little Arran character of apple, oils and barley richness left in this... especially if you leave it to breathe for a while.

A cracking sherried Arran that scores a great 89/100!

Did this pairing work?

Oh yes! For me it turns out to be the 2nd best of the evening.The raspberry gives off a big burst of raspberry to compliment nutty dry sherry profile and with this its like the raspberry chocate carries over into the whisky and vice versa. The outer chocolate coating of the truffle makes sure the experience never gets too dry and  the whisky and its abv of 61,1% never makes it too sweet. Lovely!



Chocolate truffels, left to right - mint, lemon and licorice. Picture with permission from Summerbird website

Fourth pairing:

Glen Grant 1974 37yo 49% Sherry cask#7643, Berry Bros
Chocolate truffle w/ mint

Why this pairing?

Older whiskies and especially sherry matured ones, can carry delicate mint/cooling notes both mid palate and on the finish. I've tried quite a few old Glen Grants through the years and based on that, it was pretty clear to me that the creme mint truffle should be paired with the Glen Grant. Lighter in its sherry style than expected makes this bottling quite a delicate whisky, IMO with Mocha latte and old tawny port and fresh leather notes. The palate deliveres a good combination of spotless oloroso sherry profile and anis and a little mint on the finish.

A delicate number, this Glen Grant with a score of 89/100!

Did this pairing work?

Yes, this also worked :-) Though the mint and chocolate took the lead in this pairing, the Glen Grant still managed to shine through with its combination of 49% abv and coffe, tawny port notes and old age. The mint from the chocolate also provided at sort of palate cleansing for the next pairing

Fifth pairing:

Inchgower 1982 28yo 56,2% cask#6968, Berry Bros
Cream puff of white chocolate w/ passion fruit/rosehip fill

Why this pairing?

Since I've not tried that many Inchgowers through my whisky drinking years, I thought based on its tasting notes, it could be fun to put this one in the tasting. This was a pairing done on the basis of other peoples tasting notes of the whisky and a pre-tasting of the cream puff used. so I was very excited to see if this would work. The whisky itself turned out to be a cracker! Thick creamy malt, ginger, hint of peanut, a little mixed herbs and oak spice.

A delicious malt, this one - one I'd take a bottle of any time - scores a solid 90/100!

Did this pairing work?

Definately yes - this was hands down the best pairing of the evening, according to my taste. The malty herbal Inchgower matched the passion fruit/rosehip beautifully. You had the think malt, slight sharp gingery, spicy and herbal notes matching the sweeter passion fruit/rosehip in a way where you'd want to take a nip of the whisky, then the cream puff ad the whisky again until both were gone. A sure sign of a excellent pairing :-)

White chocolate cream puffs w/ passion fruit/rosehip. Picture with permission from Summerbird website

Sixth pairing:

Ardbeg 'Galileo' 1999 49% ex-bourbon & marsala cask, Distillery bottling
Chocolate truffle w/ lemon

Why this pairing?

Some lemony/winey peat smoke and chocolate with lemon - whats not to like?
I've previously reviewed the 'Galileo' on the blog - you can read them by following this link

Did this pairing work?

Ehh no - it did not! The lemony creme filling and the marsala wine and sweet peat just made it go over the top and borderline queasy. This pairing just didn't work and the 'Galileo' is a dessert dram to be had on its own. Not much more to say about this, really... maybe other than 5 out 6 isn't so bad :-)


Was this fun?

This was a very nice evening out, indeed and hosting this was a lot of fun and I know that most people left the tasting with the desire to explore whisky and chocolate pairing further, which was really the point. If asked again, I'll be more than happy to host another tasting like this.

Finally, I hope this blog post will inspire some of you out there to try whisky and chocolate pairing yourself...

And most importantly... have fun :-)

GLEN GRANT 1960 - GORDON & MACPHAIL

Glen Grant 1960 (2009) 49yo, 40%, Gordon & MacPhail for Glen Grant

Nose:
Amaretto, Coffee, Chocolate, oak

Taste:
Drying, sweet oak, vanilla, coffee allsorts, figs maybe - an extremely dry whisky, but opens up with litteraly only 2 drops of water - another nice old Glen Grant, but maybe just a tad too much oak, but still...

90/100! (tasted 23-02-2012)