Tastes

Actually pretty competent bourbon. No age statement but surprisingly good. Not special but would happily drink again.

Packaging for Glenglassaugh’s core range is pretty meh but that’s admittedly low on the priority list. Pale straw color with a drop of orange. Thin body. Nose is quite bright. Yeasty and sharp. Bread dough, vanilla, lemon, and grape must. The palate is gently sweet with a subtle flavor that builds. More lemon-vanilla. A little grassy. Creamy lactose. Young floral highlands notes, but more grainy than malty. 46% ABV adds to the sharp aspartame bite without offending. A few drops of water mute out some of the sharpness but don’t substantially affect the overall experience or takeaways. Ultimately no objections to the sharp, flowers and cream profile, but tastes quite young and out of balance. Hard to see restocking this one, but you could do worse.

Pale orange. Moderately thin but noticeably oily legs. Peach pits and jasmine flowers on the nose. A little salinity and yeasty biscuits. Nice weight and vanilla cream on the first taste. Sweet scones with a gentle sour cream tang. Lemon zest. White chocolate. A pleasant drying sensation brings saliva, then the gentle smoke takes over. Phenols are mild and a nice compliment to the lemon cream. Solid under $60, on a great day you might still find near $50, and, if you do, you should buy on sight.

Not half bad for the price. Creamy and rich, no ethanol but can taste the blend with grain whiskey. Im a fan of sherried Irish and this checks the box. Prefer to Jameson and might be a little cheaper to boot.

Color me the fool who thought that Glanfarclas 105 was 105 proof. I will admit I made it 80% of the way through this bottle thinking “I like the ‘farclas profile but this sure is assertive for only a smidge over 50% abv”. When my dumb eyes finally registered the 120 proof everything clicked into place. This has a classic Glenfarclas profile - a tart, vegetal, vanilla nose, concentrated just like the proof. Then chocolate, bread, oak, apricot, and orange. Extremely creamy - both the distillate and proof. I like it. In the days of yore this was an affordable bottle… now that the 12 year has gone from 40 to 70 this is in the 90 range, up from 60. A shame because I think that price point disincentivizes exploration of proof with a challenging distillate. If you can find this for a reasonable price (<$75) and you like assertive Sherry, I’d say give it a whirl.

Not complex but liked the experience. Sweet vanilla cream plus smoke. This bottle, a blend, used to be a slight upcharge vs some quality single malt competitors but its price has stayed pretty flat while those age-stated single malts ballooned, so I think this is available at a very fair price these days. Recommended.