Staying with family and tasting tiny portions of a pretty large selection of whisky, bourbons and single malts and this is hands down my favorite so far. It’s not at all woody or loaded with vanilla like lots of long aged bourbons, some fruitiness and interesting flavors. It’s so smooth and on the delicate side of whiskies I’ve had, I’d probably enjoy it with food.
The fact that we haven’t heard of it probably says something.
1 Like
+1. … And I just don’t like Glenfiddich, generally.
Glenfiddich was one of the first single malts i drank and the Grand Cru is probably very good but i don’t think its $300 good, i would stick with the 18 year old Vat 04 @ half the price
1 Like
I just returned from the 26th Ardbeggeddon gathering of the Clan in Dick Cheney’s Secret Underground Bunker located somewhere in the Mojave Desert.
Lookie here at what I found on the table!
Clean sherry, spirity as a 12 year old should be, Glenfarclas I assume. I hope the owners of Rites of Passage have other similar casks that they are continuing to age. This one has the stuffing and balance to age much longer in cask.
3 Likes
@Robert.A.Jr loves it. Large pour, giant ice, big smile. At least form the pics he texts me.
2 Likes
Ya. Good stuff. I bought a bottle of that for my son when he graduated from Bama, but I think I killed half of it.
2 Likes
Thanks so much for this, Mark! Sorry I didn’t see it until now. We’re delighted you enjoyed the Glenfarclas (yep, you were right), and agree it could effortlessly have aged longer, as Glenfarclas is so good at that. We were just loving it at this stage, though, and are happy with the way it came out.
Jonathan and I do have more great casks at various stages of development, some coming close to bottling, and some babies. Sadly, distribution is the issue now, so if anyone knows a good distributor who might be interested in talking, we have a lot to offer!
1 Like
Last night I attended a dinner with Rachel Barrie at Spago, where we drank Glendronach before, during, and after our meal. It was the first time that I’ve met Rachel, who has been in the industry for quite while and is one of the most prominent woman in whisky in Scotland, as master blender for the Brown-Forman distilleries (Glenglassaugh, Benriach, and Glendronach). Prior to joining Brown-Forman after it acquired the distilleries from Billy Walker, Rachel worked at Morrison Bowmore, Ardbeg, and Laphroaig. We have a lot of friends and not friends in the biz and I enjoyed the gossip.
I wasn’t much of a fan of Billy Walker’s Glendronach, which was generally too PX sweet for my palate. Rachel has dialed back the PX in favor of more oloroso. Last night we tasted the flagship 12, single casks from 1993 and 1994, and the 30 and 40. All were pristine sherry cask whiskies, without a hint of sulphur. I liked them all, especially the 1993 single casks and the 40. The 40 surprised me with its vigor and balance. It was all that the Macallan now fails to be. My only problem with the 40 is that it retails for $6500, if you can find a bottle (there are three bottles at BF in California).
2 Likes
December 2022 bottling. The palate length here is impressive. Has richness, a hint of sweetness but real density and peacocks tail. Might be my current favourite.
3 Likes
Springbank also a favorite, but the 15, which used to be $80 not that long ago, is now 200+. 18, which was maybe 150, is now 400.
2 Likes
I like this 12 year old Springbank 100° Proof. Very, very much. I think Sarah, Micheal, Charlie, and Matthew also liked it a couple of years ago at Anajak’s Taco Tuesday. This particular bottle attended Ardbeggeddon a couple of weeks ago. We drained it.
2 Likes
That was an amazing bottle at Anajak. Loved it.
During Dry January, I fell off the wagon big time and bought a bunch of wine. When I sheepishly confessed to Jonathan, he said “that’s okay - I just bought a cask of Laphroaig.”
3 Likes
I have one bottle of the 2019 release ($90) of the unobtainium Springbank 12yo Cask Strength napping in the cabinet, such an interesting dram. I am hoping that further bottle aging will be kind to it.
2 Likes
It won’t change a lot, and what change it does will be glacial. But it will last nearly forever.
2 Likes
I am lucky that the Australian importer who I have known for a long time allocates me a few bottles a year, but scarcity and retail prices on these now makes them hard to come by.
When I was in Scotland in 2022 at teh peak of whisky demand I went to half a dozen whisky shops and none of them had a bottle on the shelves.
1 Like