Glenglassaugh Octaves Classic

Nose: Earthy, vanilla, dried fruit (berries/cranberries). Golden syrup and demerara sugar. Quite 'fiery' and hot on the nose! Palate: Chocolate, damson jam, dark treacle, salted vanilla caramel (although slightly burnt caramel). Finish: Long finish. Dark cherry and damson jam, chocolate, hints of black pepper and chilli. Light citrus on the aftertaste. Pedro Ximénez and Amontillado casks Batch 2 This is an unctuous and luxurious dram with a great mouthfeel for it's relatively low ABV (44%). A great salty and sweet dram.

Quite warm, caramely

This is Batch 2. This distillery wasn’t really on my radar but I read that this is work from Rachel Barrie of whom I am a fan of. Her blends and vatting’s at BenRiach are amazing and right up my ally. So is Glendronach. So I wanted to see what she did at this distillery. Young and clean nose. Lots of heather and herbs, light orchard fruits. Very strong aromas, very unique as well. Less sweet and more focused on wild organic aspects. I like it. It reminds me of Wolfburn small batch releases but feels more mature yet a little more straight forward. The palate first is sweet but quickly gets fruity fresh with a equally balanced acidicy. There is again mild wild herbal notes but the palate feel even younger. Not with a alcoholic sharpness (which is more subtle here) - more with a completely missing wood / oak influence. The nose later introduces a bid of smoke and brininess. All in all it is a proper fine whisky. It doesn’t go as deep and focuses on a more honest classic identity. I like it for that.

Note - I'm doing the Really Good Whisky Company Advent Calendar. I've also decided to pour these whiskeys "blind" (or at least as blind as I can), then providing nose, palate, and finish notes. I'll then look at the label, proof, cask type, etc. before writing my other notes. I'll be providing some guesses around things like proof and cask type and then seeing how much I missed the mark. Slàinte Mhath! Nose: Pouring this into the glass, the smell was jumping out at me. Going to guess this is 100+ proof. Beautiful - honeyed toasted grains with vanilla-flavored yogurt. Cracked black pepper. Fresh hay. Walking into a kitchen while a pie is being baked with green apples, light on the spices. There's a vase of fresh cut flowers on the counter, as well. Getting a sense of brown sugar and oak buried under the flowers and greenery. Definitely a Scotch, so I'll guess bourbon cask is in play. Also going to guess Highland? Totally out of my element on Scotch regions. Fresh thyme and rosemary with a touch of mint. Expressed orange peel. The floral character is slowly becoming more perfume and potpurri. Cucumber and canteloupe. Maybe just a touch of salt. Also an earthy, nutty undertone that starts to butt up against wet cardboard territory for me. Palate: Where the nose is big and bold and jumping out of the glass, the palate is soft and approachable and sweet. Age is evident, with oak and tannin showing up, alongside a touch of black pepper. Ripe hoenydew and canteloupe drizzled with honey and topped with whipped cream. Herbs again, with more baking spice than on the nose - getting a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg, though not crazy amounts. Letting this sit on my tongue the palate wakes up and the proof shows itself. Toasted cereal grains. Raw red bell pepper, arugala, red radish, dill. Herb salad vibes, no tomatoes. This is very mid palate heavy, with midrange and bass for days and a solid presence. Light mouthfeel, leaning towards medium. Finish: A swell of melon, black pepper, and yogurt. Slowly strawberries with balsamic vinegar show up, with some bitterness as well. Cream and vanilla, banana, coconut. Subtle sour notes play off the honey sweetness. Things slowly fade out on oak, bitter, sour, honey, etc. Long finish, with decent oil content helping things stick around. Other notes: Seeing that this was only 44% surprised me - though I'm guessing my brain parsed the higher oak influence as higher proof (likely a conflation due to my appreciate for highly aged, cask strength bourbons). This is named for the cask type, apparently about 1/8th the site of a butt, or around 17 gallons, which is why there's a higher oak presence and, again, I parsed as having a lot of age. I also missed that on top of the bourbon, there's PX and Amontillado sherry cask going on, though going back that would explain some of the fruit and nut I experienced. Doing this blind was eye opening and humbling - I still have a ton to learn and a lot of palate development ahead of me. Getting out of my wheelhouses of bourbons and Islays was also a ton of fun. I can't wait to see what the next 24 days holds.