Glenlivet Caribbean Reserve

The Glenlivet, a staple for balanced, affordable scotch that seems to scratch my itch for it, no matter what region I'm craving. I'm surprised I haven't seen this variant yet, considering it's been released for over 5 years and isn't prone to the insane markup and allocation that American whiskey is, but it still made for a nice birthday gift nonetheless. In any case, it's a great idea to grab some of the sweeter notes from rum barrels and combine with pretty decent scotch, and other than the boring, standard proof, I can't think of a way this will be anything less than moderately enjoyable. The color manifests as a mixture of deep pine, straw, and toffee. The nose is mostly notes of sour, fermented mash or "distiller's beer," with a tiny note of oak behind it, although neither sweet nor dry. Because of all the grain and sourness, if there is any rum here at all, it is a very unrefined syrupy flavor, almost hogo in nature. The body begins as light and inoffensive, but not necessarily watery. The sour and hogo flavors are found here at the top, but moderately so and not enough to be a turn-off if you don't like it or haven't experienced it before. Only after swallowing is there a tiny sweetness that delivers on traditional oaky, sweet, aged rum. The finish is a bit dry, with notes of both plain oak as well as raw sugarcane contributing to this. Repeated sips surprisingly stack on a bit of a gum burn, but doesn't move any further towards the back of the mouth or throat. Although I do like the unique flavor profile here that distinguishs itself well from the rest of the Glenlivet line (without sacrificing what makes the base whisky great), it's not exactly reminiscent of rum, or at least what the most common profile is when thinking of rum. At the end of the day, the dry, slightly smoky maltiness from the base scotch does pair well with the hogo, partially sour notes it gained from the rum barrel, but really didn't become any sweeter, so it just depends on what you're looking for and expecting when picking this one up.

Nice smpoth with lightly frutty

Expected a stronger rum-cask influence, but it’s subtler than anticipated. More of a suggestion than a statement. A good daily sipper neverthless.

Nose: fruity, banana, young sweet malt. A light caramel Palate: initially a hit of fruit. Young sharp dusty malt. Grainy. Finish: bitter. Short. Thin.