Glen Ord 2004 11 Year Cask #142 Cask Collection (A.D. Rattray)

Seeing the uniform opprobrium that greeted this youthful Glen Ord single cask has made me a little nervous about reviewing it! I tasted this a few months ago but neglected to do my Distiller homework and put my thoughts to paper. In a shocking turn of events . . . I really liked this one! My tasting notes on it indicate that the nose featured lots of sweet grain, vanilla cake, egg batter, and butter cookies. The palate was a mixture of butter and lemon, with hints of salt and scrumptious ripe apple. It wraps up with lasting lemon tartness balanced by warm butter and floral accents. The strangest thing of all is, I'm not really the biggest fan of Highland whisky, but I found this one to be a pleasure. Thanks @PBMichiganWolverine for the sample!

@PBMichiganWolverine provided this sample of Glen Ord from the independent bottler A.D. Rattray. The previous reviews were rough and I hope it is not that bad (is there any positive qualities?) Acetone (nail polish) is immediate and forward on the nose. Once the nail polish settles down and diminishes, some earth and sweetness come through. Straw grass, floral, apples, Entenmann’s crumb cake (the crumbs). Hmmm, if there’s Entenmann’s in anything, it can’t be all that bad, right? Initial draw is syrupy sweet. Thick on the palate that arrives hot. Some hint of vanilla custard come through. After that, it flavors become muddy and muddled. Water is needed to temper the heat. As such, charred wood, and acetone is all that can truly be detected. Water makes it tolerable but not sure if it improves. Finishes bitter and hot of lemon rind, red pepper flakes, earth. This is a rough and raw whisky. Work and tolerance is needed to get through. The nose was the apex of this whisky. From there, it all goes downward. [80/100][Tasted: 3/9/18]

As we keep on plugging our way through the fifth round of distillery samples, I’ve stumbled upon this Highland single malt from Glen Ord: the 11 year old. It’s an independent bottle from AD Rattray and comes in at a cask strength of 58.9%. This sample was provided by my friend @PBMichiganWolverine, from NJ. It’s a beautiful light gold in the Glencairn while appearing quite oily, but making no legs when you give it a spin. The nose is oak and alcohol to the point it’s borderline offensive. There’s a hint of green apples and some other orchard fruits, but you can’t stick your nose in there for too long- it just burns too much. The palate is very dry, hot and unnecessarily harsh. I’ve read the other guy’s reviews to this point and they all said to add water, but seeing as how their impressions didn’t improve- I just said “F it” and suffered through the pain. There were hints of apple sweetness, but I didn’t worry about investigating it further. I just slammed back the last of the sample and waited out the finish. Well, the finish is blazingly hot and dry. At no point did I even contemplate ways to improve any part of this whisky. Just get it over with! Lol. I wanted to curse my friend for subjecting me to this insane single malt, but alas, it isn’t his fault. We just need to power through these abominations and keep on moving. I don’t even want to give this one a score because I truly hope Glen Ord produces something better than this train wreck. Maybe once this tour is over I’ll invest a little bit of money and seek out a different Glen Ord, but this one is truly a disaster. Cheers to drinking better things.

Stop number 68 on the SDT is Glen Ord. This Diageo owned Highland distillery does release single malts but it would seem most of what it produces goes into various Johnnie Walker blends. It appears that their official bottles are not readily available here so we have this independent bottle from A.D. Rattray. 11 years old, distilled on 9/1/2004 and bottled on 7/4/2016. One of 316 bottles from an ex bourbon hogshead, cask # 142. Bottled at cask strength of 58.9% ABV and is non chill filtered and natural color of pale straw. The nose starts fairly grassy and floral. Some bourbon sweetness. Green oak and some fruits emerging. Apples, green grapes, nectarines, pears and a lemony citrus. Sweet spearmint hints at more of that bourbon cask influence. The huge ABV really shuts down the nose on this one so a generous amount of water was added. After the water I got honeyed cereal, faint butterscotch, licorice, anise, a little pickled ginger and an earthy note. Not a horrible nose, but it was not too complex and took a lot of coaxing and water to get what I could. The palate is hot hot hot! I pretty much had to add water right away and, much to my surprise, water made it even hotter. I added a little more water and it got hotter still. I had to add a ridiculous amount of water to make this palatable. After that I was able to pick up on oaky pears, black licorice, pepper, a little honey. It’s a bit sour and bitter as well. Once it’s watered down to the point where you can drink it without setting your tongue on fire, you realize it’s just not good. Medium to full bodied mouthfeel that is dry. A long finish with licorice, oak and pears. Very dry. This is pretty bad, probably the worst single malt scotch I’ve ever had. Way too hot and water made it worse until so much was added that it killed almost everything else. Nothing really good to speak of except a nice pear note throughout the whole profile. Avoid this one like the plague. Thanks to @PBMichiganWolverine for the sample, but I’m glad it’s gone. 1.75 Moving on...

Faint nose of light citrus, honey, and vegetative/herbal properties. The palate was a little better, but I am not a fan of black licorice, and there was a lot of that in there with basic vanilla, butter, and sourdough bread. A very slightly smoked short finish. Not one for the spittoon Pranay, and thanks for the opportunity to try the distillery. I will agree that it won't go down in the record books for a memorable experience though. 2.5. The theme of this one needs to be "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" by Waylon Jennings. The song is much better than the dram though.

First of all, I want to give a huge thanks to Mikael and the Distiller team. I asked them to put several independent bottlers that our little tasting team will be going through, and they did it with amazing turnaround. Thanks guys! ( now if you can teach our IT team on the same turnaround for requests...😊). So this was my offering to the tasting team. We have maybe 2 more rounds to go, and we’ll have covered a sample from every operating Scottish distillery, and 2-3 ghosted ones too. I don’t know what the hell to write about this. I already forgot what it taste like. This is like that time in college art class ( the only subject I never got an A+ ). You’re sitting there listening to the teacher about some Renaissance era painter, and then you’re supposed to mimic his drawing after looking at a few examples. But if you found art dismally boring and useless ( cut me some slack, I was a triple chemical engineering, biochemistry and political science major), then you would’ve been like me and literally forget what the hell you looked at. Of course the teacher gets mad, and gives you a D-. You’re probably wondering what the hell was I doing take art class??! There was a pretty girl involved. And she was so worth the hit to my GPA. So goes this. I think this had a faint floral nose like honeysuckles ( which by the way, are a freakin pain to get rid of, they take over the entire garden...anyway I digress ). Taste? I don’t know. What the hell. Maybe faint citrus-y? Like an orange peel dipped in turpentine? Who gives a rat’s ass...no one’s gonna buy it after reading the next few upcoming reviews. @Generously_Paul knock this out early in the game too. And @LeeEvolved @Generously_Paul @Telex @Scott_E I won’t be offended if you guys share this with a spittoon. Two stars and not one because at least I didn’t gag.