GLENBURGIE 1994 20YO - CHIVAS BROS CASK STRENGTH EDITION

Like the distillery in my previous review (Miltonduff) Glenburgie is a major contributor to the Ballantine's Blend - in fact so much that the owners has named it 'Home of Ballantine's'. Other major malt contributors to Ballantine's, BTW, are as mentioned Miltonduff, along with Glentauchers -also in Speyside- and Scapa Distillery on Orkney. 

As with Miltonduff, you often have to look to the indie bottlers to find a Glenburgie, but again Chivas Bros has done us a favour and bottled one in their Cask Strength Edition-series...

The Glenburgie Stills - Thanks to Bruce Crichton for the use of the picture

Glenburgie 1994 20yo (20.06.1994/05.08.2014) 50,7%, Batch#GB20006, Chivas Bros Cask Strength Edition, 50cl bottle

Colour is white wine

Nose:

A bit restrained and spirity at first, but it opens up after a few minutes in the glass and gives off notes of soft fruit (apples and a little peach mostly), hints of coconut and a handsome dose of vanilla and sweet malt and some crushed red berries and a little nipping oak.

Taste:
A good malty backbone wrapped in fruit, both a citrus and apple/pear style fruitiness. It has a slight waxy mouth feel with honey and hints of tinned pineapple. The finish gets slightly ginger- and peppery. Some good middle-of-the-road flavours takes this a long way without straying in any strange direction at any point. I see why this is a blenders favourite - this may even make it to be someones malt favourite!

Finally, thanks to Kalle for the sample

87/100!

GLENBURGIE 1985 - THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY

As with the previous whisky I reviewed here, the Miltonduff by Adelphi, Glenburgie is also a large contributor to the Ballantines blend. So far, I've only reviewed one other Glenburgie here on The Malt Desk and you can read that review here.

It's straight on to the review...

Glenburgie Distillery hiding behind the trees - picture from WikiMedia

Glenburgie 1985 71.36 (28.05.1985/xx.09.2012) 27yo 'Two seasons in a dram' 58,1%, Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, 206 bottles, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Colour is dark amber

Nose:
Very nice, bakery shop, vanilla, hint of chocolate, marmalade - full blown Danish pastry. Underneath there's some very subtle spices and dark wood notes and strong tea along with some musty notes.

Taste:
What happened here? Immediate wood arrival, wet planks, sawdust, cardboard and wet newspaper and very drying. Mid palate it gives off some tropical fruit mango/multi fruit juice style and some nutmeg, but the wood quickly rushes back in, leaving an impression of too much time in the wood and some overly oaky American bourbon...

This is close to oak juice, IMO - you need to drown this one in water to drink it...

A rare miss by the SMWS

70/100! ... very much credited to the good nose on this one

GLENBURGIE 1998 71.37 'AN ASSIGNATION IN A BOUDOIR' - THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY

Glenburgie Distillery is located just off the A96 app. 2 miles east of the town of Forres.
Being a rather large distillery capacity wise with a 4.2 million liter outpout a year, surprisingly little gets bottled as a single malt - instead -as Glenburgie is owned by Pernod Ricard- lots of it goes into Ballantine's blend.

Glenburgie also use to produced a spirit called Glencraig (1970's to early 1980's)which is from an entirely different set of stills, called Lomond Still - what's special about then you read about here at wikipedia.

Whisky merchants Gordon & MacPhail in Elgin has bottled Glenburgie malt under their own label for a number of years now and especially the older versions have been terrific.

Let's see how this one from the SMWS fares...

Glenburgie 1998 71.37 (26.03.1998/xx.11.2012) 14yo 'An assignation in a boudoir' 57,9%, Refill sherry Gorda cask, 699 bottles, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society


Colour is amber

Nose:
Cereal and mash, Oranges, hint of sulphur of the spent fireworks/match stick kind, burnt sugar and custard creme, sultanas and strong tea.

Taste:
Creamy coffee with a bite - think a spicy cappuccino, getting more flowery with time - lavender style, rubbery notes, musty and dried fruits and a hint of strawberry.

A whisky where the, sometime, dreaded sherry gorda cask shows itself with a bit of sulphur.
I've seen it much worse in a couple of other gorda cask bottlings from the SMWS, but in this one its at an acceptable level. Still, I'll leave it at...

84/100!