Tag Archives: Glen Garioch

Glen Garioch 21 year old for Abbey Whisky

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I buy a fair amount of whisky from different retailers all over the world, but one of my favourite online stores would have to be Abbey Whisky. They’ve got a slick website, great prices and above all, the service – from communication, to packaging and delivery times – is absolutely top-notch.

Snapseed

I recently bought a Springbank from them and noticed a little something extra in the box when my delivery arrived and it turned out to be a sample of their latest bottle from their Rare Casks series, a 1994 21 year old Glen Garioch. Here’s what Abbey Whisky have to say about it:

“We continue The Rare Casks story with this magnificent Glen Garioch, the sixth release in the series. Distilled in 1994 and fully matured in a refill hogshead until 2016, only 126 bottles have been filled exclusively for Abbey Whisky. As with each previous release in The Rare Casks series, the whisky has been bottled in it’s natural form, at full cask strength, without chill filtration or colour additives.”

Snapseed

What I’ve got to say

On the nose it’s bright and citrusy, with fresh cut pineapple, lemon and grapefruit zest, a touch of honey and a mossy herbal vegetal note. Is that some peat influence in there?

On the palate it’s oily and thick, with the spiky citrus and honey hitting you first. Pineapple, custard and more citrus follow, with chalk and a sooty, grassy vegetal note arriving toward the finish.

This isn’t what you’d call an ‘obvious’ whisky, as in it doesn’t leap out of the glass at you, hitting you with big vanilla, or peat, or sherry. Instead, I get the hallmarks of a quality spirit, rested in a cask that allows the spirit to shine through, without being dominated by oak. A really nice change of pace, if you have the patience for it. The smallest amount of water (or a good amount of air) doesn’t go astray with this one.

Abbey Whisky’s 21 year old Glen Garioch is still available on their site now for a smidgen under a hundred quid, so go check it out. Thanks to Mike and the team for kindly slipping this one in with my delivery, it was a lovely surprise and is a top little dram!

The Last Drop: 1967 Glen Garioch

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Nineteen sixty-seven. It was the year the Shelby GT500 Mustang first rolled off the production line, Rolling Stone published their first magazine and Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain was born. It also happened to be the year Glen Garioch filled an ex-bourbon hogshead with some new-make spirit and set it aside to slumber.

Bottle

That cask then sat there in a dark warehouse, quietly maturing for 47 years before luxury independent bottlers, The Last Drop, decided to bottle it and release it to the world. It also marks the first time that The Last Drop have bottled a single malt whisky, with all previous releases from the company being super luxury blends (like the 1960 blend, or The Last Drop 50 year old blend).

Brochure

Although the industry moves at a comparatively slower pace to the rest of the world, a fair bit has changed at Glen Garioch in the last five decades too. Their malt is no longer peated, they no longer floor malt their own barley and their stills are now gas fired (they were actually the first distillery to switch over to gas-fired stills back in 1982). 47 years of maturation aside, the actual base Glen Garioch spirit would be quite different today compared to what they were making back in 1967, so getting the chance to taste this is a rare treat indeed.

So without further ado, let’s give this a whirl.

The Last Drop

The nose is dense, rich and round with a lovely depth of sweet fruit, malt and oak. Ripe stewed stone fruit (like caramelised peaches, nectarines and apricots), thick sweet honey, malt and oak with an underlying kiwifruit tang. For me it invoked thoughts of a warm bowl of porridge, drizzled with honey and topped with fruit. A surprising amount of sweetness and balance for something so old.

The palate really caught me by surprise, primarily for its disconnect with the nose. I found it immediately oily and silken. Flavour-wise, the delivery caught me by surprise with everything seeming to arrive at once; sweet honey, tropical fruits (mango and papaya) and a hefty amount of peat presenting as coal and iodine. The sweet fruits fade to a long, drying peated finish.

The Last Drop 1967 Glen Garioch is available exclusively through Dan Murphy’s and carries a recommended retail price of AU$9,000. So you can do the math on the 10ml sample you see in these pictures (that’s right, you’re looking at more than AU$120 worth of whisky in that glass!)

With just 118 bottles in the world, I think it’s safe to say that many are likely to remain unopened in collections or shops around the world, so to get the chance to taste this is pretty special indeed. A sincere thanks to The Last Drop and DEC PR for providing the sample pictured here.