I'll start and end this session with Glengoynes distilled in 1969. The other ones are somewhat of a mixed bag. I know there are many people that's enthusiastic about older and sherried variants of this malt. I am too, but that oloroso influence can be a bit too much for me sometimes. In this tasting I'll try some variants that seems to come from other sherry casks, say a fino cask for instance. I hope it does well!
Glengoyne 1969-? 47% OB Vintage Reserve
According to whiskysites such as the whiskybase.com, there were released 2742 bottles from this batch. I wonder how many are still left. I think that the Lang Brothers acquired Glengoyne in 1965 and started releasing the Vintage Reserve series in 1967, so this is the third release from this series then. A nice golden hue. On the label it says "Unfiltered", and there is some small sediments svimming around in there, but far from the fish one can find in some of the Raw Cask bottlings from Blackadder. Smells light, vanilla, candy floss, herbal, basil, needs time, eventually it becomes oakier, chili paste, leather and more vanilla. This one needs lots of time to expand itself in the glass. The taste is of rustic quality, old carpet, bonfire, burnt oak, dusty attic, you know what I mean... It's old and elegant with some camphor and more flowery style. It fills the mouth very well, it explodes on the Circumvallate Papilla, or back of the tongue if you like, leading to a licorice, rubbery, chili, smoked bacon, dried red paprika and dried onions finish. I mean, really rustic/old style. Is some of it a result of the non-filtration?
Not a single Oloroso cask, but ever so good: 8.5
Glengoyne 21yo 1986-2008 OB cask#1391
A more modern version from a sherry butt, with those dreadful suggested taste characteristics on the label, for you to read and then make expectations of what to taste even before pouring a wee drop from the bottle. I hate it, because it's not represented as an objective taste note at all. I believe that marketing also should have some limits. I don't want to know what my whisky should taste like, I don't even want to know what it could taste like, I just want to try it and find out for myself!!! I remember one time I was attending a whisky tasting event, and a large group of people were buzzing over a young macAllan. Suddenly one says with a somewhat loud voice, in Norwegian, "Oh, it's unripe bananas". And suddenly everybody started saying that it tasted like unripe bananas. I have tried that bottling on a later occasion, a youngster Macallan from Douglas Laings OMC-series, and there were no unripe bananas. But surely I was looking for them much more than enjoying the whisky as a kid exploring the playground first day at kindergarden, which is something I usually do. Never know what's there to be found. But now I'm losing my trail here, Glengoyne, yes. Dark one, smells well, cinnamon, strawberries, a bit burnt and phenolic, fresh cut grass, reminds me of the 8yo Glengoyne bottling called "A Strawberry Ballerina" a couple years back, from the SMWS. Prunes and dried sage. The taste is bitter and herbal, sage, nettle soup, grassy, roasted vegetables, onions and carrots. A light style, needs water. With water it gets better, a certain aftertaste appears, which has been absent up until now. Red onions and smoked and salted mutton meat. Not very interesting, has a long way to go before it reaches the standards of the 1969, but enjoyable, and a good christmas whisky. Aperitif style. Btw, longest tasting note yet, I think!
Good stuff, but a bit dull: 5.5
Glengoyne 11yo 1997-2008 56.5% OB for Oslo Whisky Festival
One from a bourbon hogshead, how will it compare? Although a citizen of Norway, I have never been to the Oslo Whisky Festival, and I'm not sure I ever will be, not much Fettercairn going around up there. But from what I've heard, it's usually an annual success! This one is definitively on the light side of light, some easy vanilla and clean grassiness. Some black pepper as well, but it's really straight forward. The taste is sweet, spirit marker, vinyl, dried onions and leather. A big whisky in some aspects, but it has little or no aftertaste, after the initial palate ends an otherwise fun adventure. It would be fun to try an even higher %abv.'ed Glengoyne, say 60+%abv... And guess what? There's two of those coming up now!
Fine, interesting, funny, the Night Garden of malt whisky: 6
Glengoyne 10yo 2000-2011 61% OB The Distillery Cask cask#1016
One that's handbottled at the distillery, haven't quite come around to finding the pros of drinking a handbottled whisky or even the cons of drinking a machine bottled. Is it a selling trick pointed at the romantics? Help? This on is from a first fill sherry cask, sounds good. I think that too many older sherries are bottled way too late, when even at cask strength their in their low 40's what %abv is concerned. I have tried some young high strength sherried OB's and they're usually great. It smells sweet, ripe bananas, strawberry, honey, vanilla and mashed horseradish. Sweet stuff. The taste is not far from the 21yo, more raw, more peppery, and not as delightful, I mean, no strawberries or prunes here. Mostly burnt, needs water. With water it gets drier, not much more.
Biggest disappointment so far tonight, boring stuff: 2.5
Glengoyne 26yo 1969-1996 62.2% Cadenhead's
The first one born in 1969 was great, what about this one, distilled July 1969, calls for a certain song doesn't it? "sherrywood matured" it says. Nice orange hue. Smells cinnamon and honey, rustic sweet, and much lighter than the other sherried versions, in a good way. It's far from as phenolic as the other ones. A bit perfumy, and again these strawberries. The taste is burnt, licorice, fino sherry, bitter. Needs some water. When diluted it gets more peppery and sweet, chili and mint leaves. Much more interesting. Burning. I like it, but it is far from as good as the Vintage Reserve of same vintage.
Needs water to become interesting, even though sort of bitter and spirity: 6
Next tasting: Springbank Distillery
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