The Glenrothes 18 Year

No. 3 on the GR tasting range. Fully sherry hit kicks in with this. Nice sherried drop but for $125USD you can do better e.g. Glendronach 18, Glengoyne 21, Bunnahabhain 18 etc etc. Still good to see GR OBs now no longer suck!

This pour was part of a free store tasting by Petite Cellars. Over 100 bottles of whisky were on offer for free. No brand representatives. Nobody trying to sell you anything. Just let the liquid speak for itself - awesome. With my wife, we ended up trying: This bottle Macallan 18 year fine oak Ardbeg 13 year chieftains cask strength Bunnahabhain 29 year John Milroy cask strength Kilchoman private single bourbon cask Compass Box The Spaniard Glen Scotia 15 year Out of those, we ended up buying this bottle for 125 USD. It was our combined favorite. My personal favorite was the Glen Scotia, but my wife hated it. With sherry cask maturation these days, you are happy to take “seasoning” just to avoid sulfur notes. This one had no sulfur. The sherry did not have the toe-curling depth that probably no longer exists in affordable contemporary Scotch, but I did get a burst of caramel popcorn on the palate, and candied ginger on the finish. It was unexpected to have a genuine memory evoked, and not reaching for notes. “I almost get a bit of...” blah, blah, blah. No. This dram lets you have a solid narrative. It gave something, when I expected nothing, and I bought a bottle to discover some more. This completely blew away the Mac 18 fine oak, by the way, which was priced $100 higher. I think I will talk about that next review.