Glenturret 25 Years Old 1988 Bourbon ~ 51.8% (Adelphi)

• Single malt scotch whisky
• 51.8% ABV, £130 for 70cl
• Score: 88/100

What they say:

This Adelphi Glenturret was distilled in 1988 and bottled in 2014 from an American oak ex-bourbon hogshead which produced 248 bottles.

Nose: Vivid butterscotch to start, fading through mild cheese, possibly cheese cloth or an old dairy, then eucalyptus and sandalwood.  Very old fashioned.  Dampness in a traditional dunnage maturation warehouse (full of old sherry butts).  Hessian coal sacks.

Taste: Very sweet to start, drying with more hessian and a mouth cooling eucalyptus.  Water emphasises cream cheese and old warehouses – an increasingly old fashioned style of whisky.  The hessian is now soaked in old whisky, more like bung cloth.

Finish: Sweet to start, then distinctly savoury – the elusive Umami? A remarkable rare old whisky.

What I say:

Another Adelphi single cask bottling sampled at the Edinburgh Whisky Fringe 2014. Not often you see Glenturret (even OB’s) so there was no way I was going to miss this independent bottling, especially from Adelphi! Cask #522

Colour:

Full gold

Nose:

Heather honey and butterscotch, floral (increases with water), musty dunnage warehouse, cigar boxes, rich toffee

Taste:

Sweet, musty old oak wood, sour and herbal cumin, heather honey and fudge

Finish:

Long, honey and mealy oats, toffee oak and fudge persist

Overall:

A meal in the glass this one. A beautiful example of what Glenturret produces with their small production equipment. This is truly an ‘olde style’ and well-aged whisky with hordes of cereal malt and musty old oak wood.