Glenlivet 14 Year Cognac Cask Selection

Nose: honey, apples, and toasted malt Palate: vanilla and berries, more honey. After water, pears and vanilla Mouth feel: light Finish: short and semi sweet Much like the 12, maybe a bit more complex

Aroma: slightly sweet and fruity. Palate: cognac sweetness vs caramel sweetness. Oak flavor is muted for its age. Finish: Short and more cognac than standard bourbon. Interesting flavor profile but not a favorite.

Rather than the very standard 12, I'm using the Glenlivet 15(French Oak finish) as my baseline comparison for this, it seems fair and being somewhat of a "scotch cripple" I need a decent reference point of what I'm looking at. Right away the nose of the 14 is impressive, sweet red grapes mixed with a bit o honey mead and faint sea salt, my bourbon bone is already hooked. This is what the good stuff should smell like, clearly cognac finishing is a step in the right direction. The front kicks in with some warm pepper and cinnamon along with tamer than expected sweet notes. I'm not going to lie, I was really hoping for a belt of bourbon sugars but this is a nicely balanced warm, sweet and spicy scotch, instead. It's a bit lacking in complexity, not much tartness or range in sugars, things we might have expected the cognac to bring forth are not really overwhelming. If fades out gently with nothing notable on the back side, the spice warmness lingering. In comparison the 15 year French Oak just seems bland, no red grape sweetness and dryer with just some small tanins from the oak. If you offered me either bottle it would be hands down, no choice for the 14. The french oak offers next to no complexity by comparison to what the cognac brings. The french oak 15 does have a nice nose offering some tart fruit sweetness, but those nose notes become phantoms when the liquid hits the tongue. This bottle would seemingly check in somewhere around 10 dollars over the standard 12 year, at which point it becomes a modest but welcome improvement. Can recommend. Cheers!

Sweet fruit on the nose, apple and pear. Cognac definitely comes through on the nose, on the back of the pear. Not quite perfume-y. Tart apple on the palate, surprisingly bitter after the sweetness of the nose. Palate is heavy on the oak and apple. The back palate is oaky and astringent before the finish finally circles back to a breath of Cognac to close you out. What a bizarre journey. Feels hotter than it should at 14 years and 40% abv.