Tasting 4 Glenrothes

I remember my last Glenrothes session, 3 cask strengths all in the late teens and worthy around 8 points. This session has some more diverse bottlings, but I still have high hopes. G&M, Murray McDavid, Hart Brothers and Scott's Selection makes for an interesting line-up, and quite unpredictable as well. I have at some points found all of these bottlers varying from utter great cask selections to bottling sub par whiskies. Lets hope I'm in for a treat.



Glenrothes 17yo 1978-1995 40% G&M Centenary Reserve

There has been some great bottling in this centenary Reserve series, especially some older sherried ones. Golden hue. It smells rich and spicy, sweet dried chili, barbecue sauce, dried red paprika, sun-dried tomatoes, white wine vinegar, roasted apples and squash. The taste is very sweet, marshmallows, pickles, orange marmalade. Very sweet with some lightly bitter notes that reminds me a bit of red dessert sauce, summer berries and dry white wine. A good one for sure, but the finish is rather short and weak. Very short, gone in the flashes of flashes. Perhaps some water will open it up a bit. Water makes for some heather and wheaty notes. The red fruits and spiciness disappears. A nice spirit, perfect example to show what difference just a small drop of water do to a whisky.

A nice one, but it'd be so much better if undiluted I think: 6


Glenrothes 11yo 1998-2009 46% Murray McDavid

The most recent bottling in this session. I think that Glenrothes is a whisky that we'll be seeing less and less from, when it comes to IB bottlings in the future, as they are releasing quite a number of good single cask bottlings on their own nowadays. It smells very rich and spicy, sulphury, honeyed, cinnamon, tarragon, smoked sausage, dried sweet chili, chorizo, chicken broth. The taste is burnt, burnt toast, roasted almonds, garlic bread, gasoline fume, a bit extreme. The aftertaste is peppery. Once again I think a bit of water will, well, if not help, at least make for a small change of character. With some water added it turns more perfumy and bitter. I'm not as excited about this as I was with the centenary reserve. A shame since this is the most recent version.

Rough stuff, one to cherish in small amounts at a time: 4.5


Glenrothes 10yo 1992-2003 46% Hart Brothers

A fairly recent bottling. I have not tried many bottlings from Hart Brothers, but I remember one Tamdhu at 33yo which was excellent. But the age difference makes little room for fair comparison to this one. The color is white wine. It smells light and peppery. It both smell and tastes of vanilla cream and black pepper. Clean, light and enjoyable. All in all this is a whisky that one can enjoy without putting on the critic glasses. Go on enjoy, its a guilty pleasure as one might find it undeniably weird that such a light little unsherried and unpeated youngster can make for so much enjoyment. Pure, clean and good fun. This is creamy, lots of vanilla cream and. Very nice.

A combination of mellow malted barley and bourbon cask(s): 6.5


Glen Rothes 26yo 1974-2000 50.5% Scott's Selection

The oldest both in vintage and maturation age in this ession. And the only one bottled at cask strength. Should be interesting. The color is golden. It smells rich, honey and cigars, toffee and liquid caramel. A sweet treat. Also some spiciness, sweet chili, leather, malt syrup and dark berries. These notes of sweet blueberries and blackberries are amazing. The taste is sweet, black berries, cinnamon, marshmallows, flour sugar, honey, spicy, sweet chili, red wine vinegar, raisins, wine gum. The aftertaste is peppery, horseradish and red onions. A whisky that despite being very complex lets the spirit stand out much more than the wood influence.

And by the way, I think Glenrothes should always be bottled at cask strength: 8



Next tasting: Glenallachie Distillery