Glenfiddich 14 Year Rich Oak

I'm a genuine believer that Glenfiddich--as a distillery--doesn't get the love it deserves from the whisky snobs. It's damning with faint praise to say so, but there's no one out there who does non-craft presentation single malts better than them. And when they put their mind to it (as with the cask-strength 15 Distillery Edition) they can be *brilliant*. But I have to admit, this one--finished in new oak--just didn't work for me. Colour is strangely orange. Smell is off-brand orange soda, tropical fruits (mango, papaya), artificial sweetener, sawdust, lumber, stale beer. Vanilla and pear that occasionally start to mesh into a fruity, yogurt-y creaminess. White grape, floral, and then something like a throat lozenge? It's a bit all over the map. The taste is light and a bit thin--no surprise at 40%--with lots of sweetness. Pears, apples, peaches, more orange soda, melon, cinnamon. There's a distant resemblance to bourbon (credit the new oak), but it's nebulous. Lemon Lifesavers. But the sweetness goes dry pretty quickly, leaving some bitterness, something metallic, and a hint of fried plantain chips (?). A short finish of bitterness, chalky vanilla, and fruits. I wanted to like this whisky more than I did, but then again, I'm generally not crazy about "new oak" finishes. It's decent enough, but I'd happily take the (cheaper) 15 Solera over this particular experiment