Glenlivet 10 Years Old 2003 2.90 Flower meadows and patisseries (60.2%, SMWS, Refill Bourbon Barrel, 208 Bottles, 2014)
- Single malt scotch whisky
- 60.2% ABV, £48.40
- Score: 85/100
What they say:
Cask No. 2.90
The nose told us that scythes had just been through the flower meadow and that children had just been through the patisserie (vanilla slice, fruit scones, strawberry jam, caramel, butterscotch and fudge). The palate balanced delightful sweetness (toffee, crème caramel, Danish pastry with vanilla icing, jam) with tart gooseberry, lemon, lime and cranberry – an unusual leather, liquorice and pine after-taste tingled the tongue. The reduced nose found blackcurrant, heather honey and digestive biscuits; the palate was now green, grassy and self assured, with custard cream sweetness and mouth-coating fruits dusted in fine ash. The distillery is uphill from the Packhorse Bridge.
Drinking tip: An anytime dram – but especially in the garden, with no thought of working.
Date Distilled: 25 November 2003 Colour: Angel’s curls in the moonlight Age: 10 years Flavour : Young & spritely Cask Type: Refill ex-bourbon barrel Whisky Region: Speyside Spey
Outturn: 208 bottles
What I say:
Another trip to the SMWS and this time the distillery code bagging has begun in earnest, straight to the first distillery in the list I am missing, SMWS distillery #2 Glenlivet. This is a 10 year old Glenlivet expression matured for 10 years in a refill ex-bourbon barrel.
Colour:
Full amber gold
Nose:
Floral, aromatic, cereal barley, new mown hay, heather honey, croissants, icing sugar sweetness with lashings of vanilla
Taste:
Vanilla cream, cereal barley, heather honey sweetness, crème caramel, golden syrup oat flapjacks, apple turnover and pear tart, toffee oak, floral
Finish:
Short, honey and icing sugar
Overall:
Light and refreshing, perhaps a little over-sweet for my palate and the wrong time of year to be drinking this in the depths of winter. Here is a perfect summer dram or light aperitif style whisky. Full of flower meadows, grassy, cereal, floral and then oodles of baked and iced sweetness.
The Whiskyphiles 