LeeEvolved
Glen Keith 1995 21 Year (Alexander Murray & Co.)
Single Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed
March 31, 2018 (edited February 7, 2021)
It’s time for another sample from @Telex, on our Scottish Distillery Tour. This is from the obscure, Speyside distillery of Glen Keith. They originally opened in 1958, directly beside the Strathisla distillery and it was intended to be used by Chivas as an experimental distillery to develop new products and yeast strains. At one point, Glen Keith had the first gas-fired stills in Scotland. They were mothballed in 1999, redesigned with steam-fired stills and reopened by Chivas again in 2013. This sample being 21 years old means it was distilled before the redesign in 1995.
This sample was from independent bottler Alexander Murray and comes in at 43%. It spent its entire life in refilled sherry casks. It’s a beautiful, yellow gold and it’s pretty oily with nice, skinny legs.
The nose is very fruity: juicy fruit gum, apples and honey sweetness lead the way with some burnt sugar and oak notes creeping in over time. The palate follows the nose with plenty of tropical notes, some ripe bananas before a heavy dose of oak tannins and bitterness wreck things a bit. Odd, for a 21 year old to fall apart like that. The finish is incredibly short (again, odd) with a heavy dryness and bitter bite from the oak. What a disappointment from the way things began.
Overall, I wanted to give this one 4 stars because it started so juicy and tropical, but the oak barrel really grabbed this one and wrestled away what could have been a great whisky. At $125, I would expect a much more refined product, but it looks like Murray wanted to just cash in on the age statement. That’s a shame, but already watered down to 43% didn’t give them much wiggle room to try and calm the bitterness. Thanks again to Jason for the pour. I’d like to try another bottling, though, just to see if there’s a better product in the wings. This is just too bitter to rate it very highly. 3.25 stars. Cheers.
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@Generously_Paul @LeeEvolved. Sorry forgot the targeted mentioning part :-)
Ah thanks GP and LeeE. I generally block any notifications unless gmail or text so I forgot I'd done that. Now sorted!
@Soba45 - yeah, the app sends me notifications the minute someone comments on my reviews or mentions my name in a comment. I’m working odd hours this week so I’m up through the overnight this week so I see your responses immediately since it’s midday over in NZ.
@Soba45 are you using the mobile app or the website? The app should send you push notifications whenever someone mentions you, likes or comments on one of your posts.
Out of interest you generally pick up on new comments really quickly... how do you do it? Is there a notification function e.g. when someone comments on your post or are you just very good at keeping an eye on activity? I'd love to start tracking on when someone comments on my post or replies to me. It's just pot luck at the moment.
No it's not legally whisky hence the 'spirit' label... it'll be legal next year :-). Def worth buying a bottle I reckon it's quite a different experience as you get flavours from the new make coming through you just don't get in older whisky
@Soba45 - a 2yo? That’s odd. It’s not old enough to be considered scotch, but it’s aged so there’s some wood influence. I wonder if the guys in our group would accept that on the distillery tour. They must have a ton of spirit aging over there to go ahead and choose to bottle something not allowed to be called scotch whisky. Interesting.
Ok I just got hold of a sample of Ardnamurchen AD 2017 spirit. Really good for a 2 year old. Sadly i can't post a review as no photo. One more off my list though.
@PBMichiganWolverine - just let me know when your current home hits the market. I just wanna send in a good home inspector to tap on the walls and squirm through the crawl space. It’ll be the best $70 I ever spent!
@LeeEvolved and to think, when we moved 10 years ago, I only took randomly only 1/2 the bottles with me. I think if we go to my previous home, we might dig up a 50yr Old Yamazaki. And of course, arrested for breaking and entering...
@Generously_Paul - good point! :)
@Generously_Paul yeah, I should’ve got the hint when I asked if they were ISO certified...I got a confused look, and was told Chico the donkey likes swatting the flies off the agave distillate.
@PBMichiganWolverine - speaking of whisky in a garage, how many more bottles have you found laying around in yours? I bet there’s a half-century old Macallan in there somewhere.
@PBMichiganWolverine, you’ll visit two guys and a donkey, but not a guy in his garage? You’re going soft!
@Soba45 @LeeEvolved. Yeah, not sure I’d be up for visiting a guy’s garage to pick up whisky. Can’t imagine that’ll end well. The Abhainn Dearg—-I got that actually from a shop in Frankfurt Germany last year. It’s a small 500cl bottle for a silly price because it’s so few available and it was their inaugural release.
Haha.. yeah I thought Loch Ewe would be a stretch :-). Yeah I know what you mean about keeping track of things...I just now thought I had completely missed one more and wasn't sure how - Cameronbridge the largest grain distillery in Scotland...but then I found I had a sample...crisis averted!
@Soba45 - I missed Dalmunach because it’s the old Imperial distillery site having been rebuilt and reopened. Good catch. It looks like Leven won’t be bottling anything other than gin. It’s just a line of stills inside Diageo’s main bottling plant used for experimental work. You did help me update my ever-growing list though. It’s getting to be too much. Cheers and thanks for that.
@Soba45 - @PBMichiganWolverine got his hands on the inaugural release from Abhain Dearg. You’ll have to ask him how and where he got it from because I’m not sure. As for that Loch Ewe- LOL, I don’t think that one is attainable- it’s basically a distillery in someone’s garage behind a hotel. He made it a distillery through an old Scottish law loophole. I’m assuming he sells bottles at his hotel, so maybe one of our crew will visit when they go on a tour of Scotland (but probably not, haha). How in the world did that even come up on an active distillery search? Lol
Ah interesting I didn't realise about Dallas Dhu. Yes all those are ones I will be looking to get my hands on one day plus: Abhainn Dearg, Loch Ewe which sell whisky now (did you get hold of these and if so how for the latter?), the following which have been open 3 years but I don't think sell bottlings: Dalmunach, Leven and the following which haven't been open 3 years including: Aberargie, Glasgow, GlenWyvis, Inchdarnie, Isle of Raasay, Lindore Abbey, Ncn'ean, Torabhaig, Twin River. Plus 10 opening this year and more the year after.... it's like running at full tilt just to keep still!
@SolanaRoots - I’ll be lucky if my liver hasn’t failed by 2020. But, if there’s a way, I’ll be all over it, lol.
Yep @LeeEvolved you’ll just have to get the band back together for a few reunion gigs. Eager to read your review of Ncn’ean distillery in 2020 :)
@Soba45 - here is the short list of distilleries we weren’t able to find bottles from: Annandale, Arbikie, Ardnamurchan, Ballindolloch, Daftmill, Dallas Dhu Historic, Eden Mill, Isle of Harris, Kingsbarns, Roseisle, Strathearn and Starlaw. They didn’t have any scotch whisky available as of late 2017. I’m keeping an active eye on them, but our group will be “done” after late July 2018.
@Soba45 - we are counting every one that has produced a legal bottle of scotch whisky- aka: something at least 3 years old. There are a couple that have new make spirit out right now, but we didn’t include them because it’s not “scotch”. The only one we have crossed off the list is Dallas Dhu. They have old bottles available but they want way too much money for them, and theoretically they are still actively producing. The old distillery site is a museum that distills for educational purposes, IIRC. So, we crossed them off the list. Our chase is still open ended and as these newer distilleries release stuff we will try to get them and keep our list updated. I think Scotland has 10-11 distilleries scheduled to open this year alone. It’s never ending. Good luck with your chase.
Good review as always :-). Question you lot have inspired me to also try every active Scottish distillery. With my last batch of MoM samples I had thought I finally had the lot..bar one. Anyhow then I did a bit of digging and found that since 2005 another 28 have opened most in the last few years. A few are selling whisky but I couldn't get hold of any samples or even whole bottles on MoM. Are you guys counting these ones on your 'all active distilleries list and if so how are you getting hold of them. Direct to distillery?
@LeeEvolved - Excellent synopses Lee!