4 different Glenturrets

Another session with whiskies from a distillery that usually doesn't make my boat float if you know what I mean. Maybe I'm in for a positive surprise, as I had when tasting Glen Keiths the other day.


Glenturret 14yo 43% OB for the Wee Dram Blackpool Trams

A commemoration of the the Edinburgh Car #35, a two story tram. Very well, pale color, sort of white wine-ish. It smells extremely light, natural orange juice and sweet tea. It's very different from the standard expressions, much fruitier. The taste is light and fruity, green apples and glue(?). A weird whisky, fruity and easy-drinking, yet a bit off. I think there is something going on with the distilling at Glenturret which creates these off-notes of industrial glue and rubber. It isn't the first time I've found them in a dram of Glenturret. With water it gets lighter, old book-dust and peppery. Now it seems mor like the good old slightly off Glenturret that I unfortunately have encountered to often.

Enjoy neat, yet there's only some light fruity notes, no challenge here: 4.5


Glenturret 14yo 43% Signatory Scottish Wildlife

Same age and abv as the one for the Wee Dram, same color as well. Smells more spirity and a bit burnt, burnt rubber. Burnt rubber and disinfecting medic spirit. The taste is more sour, sweet and sour, like sweet chili sauce with lemon juice, it gives a bit of a bite and has much more charisma than the one for the Wee Dram. This is much better than expected, could it some from a single cask? A very good pick by Signatory in that case. The finish is smooth and long, all on sweet herbs and lavender.

This is a fine Glenturret, I hope there's many more around: 6.5


Glenturret 18yo 1990-2008 46% Chieftain's Choice

I think there's some questionable expressions in the Chieftain's Choice-series, far more so than the rather good Dun Bheagan's. But I have not found what is the difference between these two. Could it be that DB is bottled at Cask Strength and CC is diluted? Again it doesn't give much odorwise, rubbery and spirity, can this be a late bloomer too? It tastes very peppery and somewhat acrylic, paint? Needs water. Water just lightens the peppery notes a bit.

This was somewhat a letdown: 3


Glenturret 27yo 1978-2005 50.1% Blackadder Raw Cask cask#354

3 bottlings of low expectations up until now, but this one ought to be something new. I usually enjoy the Raw Cask series from Blackadder quite a bit, but this one has no cask sediments. One of my favourite things to do is to chew the remaining sediments. It's fantastic! Well, after looking through my magnifying glass, I can see some small black dots. Hallelujah! Now let's taste. Light color, in fact, all the whiskies in this tasting has had the same light white wine color. Smells strong, spirity, rubbery, grassy and iron. The taste is burnt, hickory smoke and sugar free licorice lozenges, you know the ones that aren't sweet at all. This isn't the best of the bunch so far, maybe it needs a bit of water to open up. Now it gets sweeter with the sourness that I discovered in the Wildlife version. Much better! This sweet and sour stuff combined with a lot of pepperines makes for a good trio of flavors.

Water is needed in this one: 6