Glenfiddich Project XX

Take a sip, and fall back into a burst of relaxation and satisfaction. On the nose: your favourite fruit basket with a side of vanilla, honey, and some roasted oak. The palate: smooth refreshing taste of Apple, apricot, pear, and maybe some cherry. The perfect blend of vanilla and oak with a drizzle of honey. The flavour is incredibly balanced and as it goes down is nice and smooth. The finish is a medium taste, not too heavy or light (you could say just right), with the question remaining “where have you been all my life?”

Soft Smokey after burn. Real good.

Get your 20 brand ambassadors, let them loose in your No.2 warehouse with instructions to each select one cask, then tell your master blender to blend all 20 casks together. The result is Glenfiddich's Project XX, or Project 20. Glenfiddich's experimental streak inspires me to undertake my own experiment and use Charles Maclean's tasting wheel to (ahem, more objectively?) make tasting notes. So, without further ado: Pour 30ml of Project XX into a Glencairn. Gently swirl to coat glass walls. Let sit for 10 minutes. Load said tasting wheel on laptop screen. -- Start Nosing -- Pass #1: On the wheel, moving clockwise from 12 o'clock and checking off on the aromas listed around the wheel's periphery. Cereal? Check, probably. Fruity? Check, definitely. Floral? Yes, no, maybe, hmm. Peaty? Absolutely not. Feinty? [sotto voce] What? Sulphury? No, for sure. Woody? Check, for sure. Winey? Check, most definitely. Pass #2: On the wheel, again moving clockwise from 12 o'clock and now reading aroma headings listed near the wheel's centre. For category Cereal I cannot find anything close to the XX's aromas. Does this mean I should uncheck Cereal entirely? Google says Yes. Unchecked and forgotten. For Fruity I've got Fresh Fruit, Cooked Fruit, Dried Fruit. For Floral I have Hay-Like...I think? For Feinty (this one again), I get Honey and Tobacco. For Woody, I smell Vanilla and New Wood. For Winey, I get Sherried and Nutty. [Quick sidebar: Google again, reveals that Feinty refers to aromas/flavours produced during the tails, or feints part of the distillation process.] Pass #3: On the wheel, for the third and final time, moving clockwise from 12 o'clock: now reading the detailed aromas in the middle of the wheel, I try to put those words in a cohesive tasting note format, minus the lyrical part (I'm looking at you @DigitalArc). Immediately on the nose, Project XX brings to mind Glenfiddich 12. There are apples, pears and apricots aplenty, and the all too familiar notes of butterscotch, vanilla and cinnamon, albeit fainter, more nuanced; but this is just the beginning - there's a fullness and richness in the aromas that cajoles further exploration. This, in turn, brings up notes of autumn's plum jam, supple black raisins and dried figs. A faint herbal note of heather is mixed together with the aroma of honeyed mead sprinkled down with a dusting of nutmeg. -- End of Nosing -- I found the tasting wheel to be quite the tool, no pun intended. It helped structure the thought process taking place behind the nosing experience and provided with associations that perhaps at times I would've found elusive. At the same time though, for me, it took something out of the pleasure of actually smelling the water of life and recollecting/rediscovering aromas of memories past. I won't go through this process again for the palate. Suffice to say, that Project XX delivers on the palate what the nose already promised. The mouthfeel is creamy and soft with a dry sensation coming from the sherry and port vattings. For a 47% ABV, NAS bottling, there is barely any alcohol burn, the flavours are rounded and full, and the medium length finish is oaky and satisfying, which makes me suspect that some old casks may be involved in this blend. Well done Glenfiddich, for me this is definitely a VfM offering.

The higher alcohol content is immediately noticeable; I have to take this whiskey on ice or with some water to tone it down. Strong oak, maybe a touch of sweetness. Nothing I dislike, such as peat or smoke. It's okay but I don't like the higher ABV and I don't find anything else really disttinctive about it, especially for the price.