Sweet, warm, dried fruits, citrus, and eucalyptus. Custard, nutmeg, dark forest fruit jam, toast, plums, dark chocolate, raisin, and some sweet spices.
Sweet and full nose with a hint of freshness coming through. Full of great notes.
Palate
Pepper, ginger, baking spices, lots of summer fruits and sweetness. Dried fruits, plums, dark flower honey, dark chocolate, raisin, crème brulee, rich fruit cake, dried apricots, and some woody notes.
Fresh citrus notes and tangerine are mixed with the darker syrup sweet fruit notes. Lovely combination of flavours, sweet, zesty and full.
Finish
Bit wood and cocoa dryness on the middle length finish. Also some dried fruits, raisin and little coffee bitter come to the front in the finish.
Score
I had the opportunity to try this one a couple of times. The first time on a a festival and gave it a 7 then. A small year after that I got a chance again at a tasting, but I think it was tasted after too much other things, and felt a bit weak and I gave it a 6,5 out of 10.
Now a small year further we got a sample of this one send to us. This gave me the opportunity to taste it properly and came to the conclusion that my senses are developed quickly in the 1 to 2 years, due to getting flavours more quickly, and better able to get a quick view on it. It all gets easier. It is fun to see, coming back to a whisky, that when at the first try you only got 3 or 4 things out of it, and now a whole lot of things. Good to see the development.
Also I notice more and more that whiskies tasted at festivals and so give you a sense of what is good or not, but it is difficult to really get a good complete set of notes on it. Tasting some after a festival again give you a different experience. Proves also again that also environment and the moment of when tasting it is very important.
This dram I would now give a 7,5 out of 10, and can enjoy it more and more I taste and nose it. Nice full dram. Getting to know more of Glendronach Distillery the last months and are enjoying it very much.
So, important to always come back to something if you get a chance for sure, it can give you an other view on it. And also to keep learning and developing your palate and senses, it just opens your world more and more to amazing whiskies out there...
Hi Ansgar, Nice Review! I completely agree with you that our senses learn more with each whisky experience. The brain seems to set up reference points that make it much easier (and quicker) to assess the qualities of a whisky once you've tasted quite a few. If I compare my earlier notes with the most recent ones it's easy to see I can pick up much more details now. I also agree that the environment and circumstances tend to influence the tasting experience. Therefore my morro is: " I drink with friends but I taste alone" . That way I always create the same circumstances for my tasting sessions. It does not mean of course that my notes will be correct but it does mean they are consistent over time. Cheers and have a great Sunday!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jan! Thats indeed a good motto! Trying now to get back to some older reviews I made so I can make it a bit more then just sweet/nice/hot etc ;-) Slainte! Have a great sunday!
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