Glenburgie 10 Year Distillery Labels (Gordon & MacPhail)

N: Raisin, raspberry, blackberry, chocolate (like Cadbury’s fruit and nut), sherry, sawdust, maple syrup T: Slightly thin & watery, sherry sweetness, biscuit, chocolate, mild spice, lemon F: Sweet and dry like a cranberry, and there is some spice lingering too. Rather faint and quick Nice smell. No ethanol notes. As the glass empties the chocolate notes get stronger. It is quite lovely. The initial taste was very watery, so much so that I had to check whether I had indeed added water. The finish is faint and quick, but you could look at that as a positive in that it lacks any off-putting astringent or tannic notes. I like it a lot even though there are no standout qualities that would make you sit up and say “that’s new”, or “there’s the archetypical note I have read about”. It is a straight-forward nice tasting whisky. Maybe that is the Glenburgie archetype.

Nose: light raisin with hints of sherry. Palate: quite rich, always raisins, honey, malt, dried fruit, but unfortunately with a hint of initial "corked" that ruins everything. Final: short, light, with the corked which fortunately disappears in this phase but which gives way to an equally unpleasant bitterness. A light whisky, without any particular positive quality, on the contrary ... Rating 3.00 __________________________________________________ Naso: leggero alle uvette con punte di sherry. Palato: abbastanza ricco, sempre uvetta, miele, malto, frutta secca, ma purtroppo con una punta di “tappato” iniziale che rovina tutto. Finale: breve, leggero, con il tappato che fortunatamente sparisce in questa fase ma che lascia il posto ad un altrettanto spiacevole amarognolo. Un whisky leggero, senza alcuna particolare qualità positiva, anzi… Voto 3,00

The nose is light with some kind of tart odd fruit and some rubber. There's a fair amount of herbaceousness on the nose with a bit of vegetal character too. The fruity nose is largely raisin with a hint of apple and apricot. The floral vanilla is there on the nose too. There's also a tad of rich nutty waxiness. The palate is pretty harsh, which is no shocker. The balance is actually pretty good though. There's plenty of waxiness on the palate a la Clynelish 14. It's light enough with some fruitiness. It works as a 10 year, but it's far from being an excellent whiskey. There's a bit of lemon rind, but it isn't overwhelming. There's some malt and vanilla as well. It's good for a 10 year and is kind of drinkable, but it isn't a great whiskey. The specific flavors work pretty well, sort of like Oban, but I don't love it. I would definitely drink it if served though. I wanted to bump this up, but the bitterness comes with a tad (a tad) of rancidness, so 12 seems reasonable. Props for doing so well at this age, but it's not very good.

Had just a sample of Glenburgie 10 during whiskey festival but I look forward to give it another try. Sweet, spicy stuff with a very pleasant finish.

Nice vanilla but not much else going on. 3.25