Glenlivet 15 Year French Oak Reserve

Strong honey and fruit, hints of banana with a lot of cherry and apricot. Finishes a little weak with a light bit of woody honeysuckle.

without ice: aroma of oak and sweetness of cherry or dark fruit. Taste is bourbon and honey. mostly a taste of the barrel. With ice: Aroma is strong oak. Taste is oak.

Average at best

Picked up a four pack of 50 ml Glenlivet samplers for AUD$30. Bargain. No expectations of grandeur but about time I knocked off a couple of common place bottom to 1st shelf bar offerings, although now at 15 years old and a retail price of ~$110 (the price point of Port Charlotte 0 for me locally) I’m starting to have expectations… N: There is richness and depth here that were just simply absent in the FR and 12 before it. Wood tannins are obvious and powerful, but not overstated. A little acidity in the form of a pear or apple juice. Syrupy sweetness a little pineapple maybe (unexpected) and a little hint of vanilla. P: Thick and creamy this has a full mouth filling body. There is a fudgey-sugary sweetness in the foreground with creamy oak to the back that compliment a general pear and malt note. Ever eaten Kellogg’s All Bran cereal? Well I am there right now. Vanilla, yep; check. There’s a little baking spice, clove and pepper, possibly cinnamon also. A surprising amount of complexity after the Founders Reserve and 12. F: Medium. Slightly tannic and drying. Pepper. Maybe, just maybe; desiccated coconut? Nothing exceptional but leaps and bound more interesting than the 12 and better delivered with more pronounced flavours than the FR. These types of barrels French Limousin Oak are typically destined for Cognac maturation. I can’t help but think that this liquid would have been better if the cognac had hit the barrel first. Maybe, if things were better integrated and softened slightly there might also be a development of the profile. Is it possible to rush 15 years? I think this a pretty entry level version of a 15 year old whisky, nothing to write home about but good none the less. I will have forgotten about this by the morning though, and thats a shame for 15 years. [Pictured here with an approximately one billion year old eclogite from Glenelg on the west coast of Scotland; one of the few global examples of Precambrian ultra high pressure metamorphism. This rock is in essence a 50:50 mix of dark green omphacite and red garnets. Delicious] Distiller whisky taste #114