Glenlivet 2002 Connoisseurs Choice Cask Strength

Whisky Review

• Category: Speyside single malt scotch whisky
• Origin: Glenlivet distillery
• Bottling: Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice 2018, Cask Strength
• ABV: 58.4%
• Cost: £?

What they say

• DISTILLERY Glenlivet
• REGION Speyside
• DISTILLED Thursday, 5 November 2002
• BOTTLED Thursday, 6 September 2018
• ABV 58.4%
• YEARS OLD 15
• CASK NO. 800772
• CASK TYPE First fill bourbon barrel
• OUTTURN 200 bottles
• BATCH 18/090

Official tasting notes:

• Aroma Delicate fruit blossom aromas layer over vanilla and poached pear. With time, rhubarb and raspberry notes develop and mix with smooth white chocolate and fresh custard.
• Taste Intense summer fruit and pressed green apple flavours initially; undertones of chocolate nut praline unfurl. Hints of fresh ginger complement a drying, slightly grassy, edge.
• Finish A charming dram. Delicate and refined with a lingering charred oak note.

What I say

Celebrating 50 years of Connoisseurs Choice with Gordon & MacPhail.

An Independent bottling of Glenlivet bottled as part of Gordon & MacPhail’s Connoisseurs Choice Cask Strength range.

Distilled in 2002 at Glenlivet distillery and matured in a 1st Fill ex-bourbon barrel for 15 years before bottling at 58.4% ABV, producing 200 bottles at outturn.

My tasting notes:

• Appearance: Champagne gold (3/20), small, slow, droplet tears and fine legs.
• Nose: Beautifully sweet and floral, flower shops, heady blooms and patisserie, icing sugar and vanilla, fresh sugar mini-donuts, pear & raspberry glaze/icing, milkybar buttons.
• Taste: Fresh green apples, pear juice, very light on the palate and with a little spirity heat too like spun sugar still too hot to eat, candyfloss, white grape and banana, kiwi fruit and a faintly nutty edge a little like hazelnut and macadamia, green and grassy reminds me of a green tea, kiwi, lime and wheatgrass smoothie.
• Finish: Medium-long, slightly sour, lime, grass, green, all the vanilla sweetness has sadly gone.

Overall

An intense Glenlivet, masses of 1st fill bourbon influences up front but these gently peel away in layers revealing the fruity and grassy Glenlivet spirit character underneath. The whole experience is quite marvellous. It’s a pleasant surprise to be reminded why Glenlivet has the reputation it does once in a while.

Score 87/100

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