Nose: Sweet fresh-mown hay, sugar-frosted corn flakes, peach and apricot nectar, green apple skins. It’s a very fruity nose enlivened by a cereal aroma foundation. Palate: Sweet arrival all on barley-sugar and stone fruits. Some mellow spices in the development with a little zesty and warming cinnamon. The texture is full and rounded. Finish: Medium/long. Some malty, ale-like notes appear towards the end with a slight sourness. This sour quality throws the balance off a little. Glentauchers is owned by Pernod Ricard and along with whiskies from Miltonduff and Glenburgie it is one of the central malts used for the Ballantine’s range of blended scotch. Like its stablemates, Glentauchers is a sweet, grassy, estery malt and the blended output from the three distilleries is one of the reasons behind the high degree of consistency in the Ballantines scotches. You don’t get it so much in Ballantine’s Finest, but from Ballantine’s 12 year old and up you definitely sense the presence of these classic sweet Speyside distillates. In 2017 the company released a set of three 15 year old single malts, one from each of the distilleries. Since then they have released similar sets for whisky clubs, liquor shops etc worldwide. The Whisky Club (Australia) bought such a parcel of malts in mid 2022 and released them over the next 12 months. I only bothered to buy this one, knowing from past experience with the distilleries that, well, if you’ve tasted one then you’ve tasted them all (unless as an IB expression with a fancy finish). This is a pleasant single malt, very sweet and inviting on both nose and palate with just enough depth to make it interesting. It is marred slightly in the finish which is OK on the first sip but develops a sour lactic quality with each subsequent taste, so by the end of a dram you’re sort of glad it’s finished. Still, I've almost polished off the bottle and I enjoyed it. “Good” : 83/100 (3.5 stars)