Glenlivet 14 Year Cognac Cask Selection

Nose: Raisin, plum, underripe banana Palate: clementines, light wood Finish: cloves, red grapes, light spice Palate leaves something to be desired but a fav for its smooth and light mouthfeel and sweet (but not overly) nose. Value: B+, for only $56 it’s a pretty decent bottle

Sweet with notes of raisin, prune, wood and slight pepper.

I've had a lot of Glenlivet, but I've never had a cognac finished whisky as far as I can recall. This was a $49.99 impulse purchase at Costco. Sampled neat from a NEAT tasting glass after several minutes rest. The nose is apple skin, white grapes that are still a bit underripe, orchard fruit, slight ethanol, confectioner's sugar and wet autumn leaves. It's got a very nice aroma, slightly complex and warmly inviting. Glenlivet tends to be an inoffensive dram in my experience. From the 12 year to the 21, it's all nicely rounded and easy to sip. This promised more of the same. Mouthfeel is silky, soft and without objectionable spice. There's very little heat and it's slightly thin. The flavor opens with cereal notes, bready sweetness, grape must, plum, and ripe fruits. There's a blush of ginger and slight white pepper. The finish is moderately long, very smooth and without appreciable hot spice. This is a very easy sipper. This is good, but not great. It's tasty, has a bit of complexity and no one will be offended by this bottle. The cognac finish adds interest to what otherwise I think would be a forgettable but tasty-enough quaff. This is slightly above average for scotch whisky under $60 in my market (Tampa), but isn't a game changer at all. I'll enjoy the bottle but probably won't replace it. All that said I have to think this might be a good whisky to experiment with in a Vieux Carré instead of the combination of rye and cognac. I think it might make for an interesting twist on a classic cocktail. I'll report back!

This might be my favorite so far! Easy to drink, sweet, fruity, slight toffee not at much as the box suggests.

Some really nice cognac notes to this. Nose is citrus-y, pretty nice rich cognac notes, but the finish is oddly brief