Jose-Massu-Espinel
The Glenrothes Halloween Edition 2019
Single Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed
February 4, 2022 (edited February 10, 2022)
In 1972, Biawa "Byeway" Makalanga died. He was an oustanding worker in the Glen Grant distillery. He usually worked calibrating the stills of that famous speyside distillery.
When he died, his body was buried in the cementery next to Glenrothes distillery, which is very famous, and is often photographed beside the distillery itself. It seems, that in that exact year, 1972, a Ghost started to appear at Glenrothes.
Some years passed, the Ghost was a usual visitor. Till one day, the owners of the distillery decided to bring a "medium" to persuade the ghost to leave. It seems that this person who had the ability to speak to ghosts, managed to find out that it was Byeway Makalanga who haunt the place; And, she had a solution: it seems that Byeway wanted to calibrate the stills at Glenrothes. Some engineers were hired to re-calibrate the stills, and from that day, Byeway Ghost was never seen again.
This marvelous story has been gathered in the 2019 Glenrothes Halloween edition, a beautiful "white spectre" like decanter, bottled at 46.6%abv.
On the nose, it is almost perfect. The first aroma is like cutting an orange in half and putting it in your nose. Grapefruit, fondant, chantilly cream, orange juice and orange dry cake. Red fruits are also here. Very nice.
On the palate, it starts super woody, like licking a ping pong table. Then it releases a milk cream, chocolate and orange peel.
Aftertaste was wonderfully peated. That was a surprise. Main notes: fresh can of tennis balls, nerf toys, plastic and a cigar box. Incredible aromas.
Overall, this was a very fun, super enjoyable dram. It has the perfect balance between fruitiness and peat. The peaty notes reminded me of a Laphroaig, that is why you read Tennis balls and Nerf toys. I guess the peaty, stinky (but pleasant) notes were here to resemble the ghost appearance. My score for this great single malt is 93 over 100.
Create Account
or
Sign in
to comment on this review
Nice back story - it seems most distilleries accumulate legends over time, which is kind of comforting and cosy (and good or marketing). I wonder why?