Whisky Review: The Spirit Still Give’N’Tell 25 Years Old 1992

• Category: Speyside single malt scotch whisky
• Origin: The Glenlivet distillery
• Bottling: The Spirit Still
• ABV: 51.4%
• Cost: £125

What they say

GIVE ‘N’ TELL is a Speyside single malt whisky from a distillery located in one of Scotland’s most famous whisky glens. There is nothing illicit about this whisky and pistols at the ready to anyone who says otherwise. By George, this is a great dram. Wordsmiths will divine the origin.

Official tasting notes:

A wonderful mix of maturity and youthfulness. Bursts of liquorice, marzipan, aniseed, rum and raisin.  Dates and figs dusted with wood shavings. A tropical rainstorm of fruit on the palate. Mango, orange blossom and rhubarb.

What I say

Distilled at The Glenlivet distillery in 1992 and matured for 25 years in an ex-bourbon barrel

Bottled at cask strength 51.4% producing 256 bottles at outturn.

My tasting notes:

• Appearance:  Champagne gold (4/20), numerous medium-fine droplets leave barely perceptible legs
• Nose: Floral, flower meadow and doughy, pastries, patisserie, a little spirit at first, custard Danish pastries, vanilla, banana split dessert, custard cream biscuits and soft oak wood.
• Taste: A wave of vanilla custard, pastry and cereal, crème anglais, custard slices, then fruity, crisp apple and juicy pear, mango, pineapple, tart or sharp in places, gooseberry, plus a tannic dry oak wood or stripped/sanded pine floorboards, water brings out the sweetness both here and on the nose, softer peach & apricot fruit appear too.
• Finish: Medium-long, a touch of bitter oak, pine and spice creep in to the finish too where the sweetness has all but gone by now, drying and tannic

Overall

A wonderful floral nose hints at vanilla pastries and desserts, the palate is much livelier and fruitier and dry pine overcomes the drying and tannic finish, a whisky that takes you on a bit of a journey and epitomises the distillery from whence it came.

Score 89/100

Buy Give’N’Tell 25 Year Old 1992 (opens The Spirit Still)

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