What you need to know:

• Grande Couronne means “Crown” in French.
• First Glenfiddich to be finish in French Cognac casks for 2 years.
• Expect sweetness and oak on the palate, along with a nose of café crème, brown sugar and soft spice.
• Part of Grand Series that also includes a 23 Year Old French Cuvée oak cask finish and a 22 Year Old Spanish Palo Cortado Sherry cask finish.

Glenfiddich has been on a roll with their super premium releases, all part of the Grand Series, having started from Grand Cru 23 Year Old and followed by the Gran Cortes 22 Year Old.

Joining the series, we now have the 26 Year Old Grande Couronne. Grande Couronne actually means “Crown” in French, and according to Glenfiddich, this latest release is the, and I kid you not, “crowning glory to your celebrations”.

*eyes roll all the way to the back of my head*

I can’t help it, sometimes these marketing copies are just too over the top for me. But I guess in this competitive game of hungry hippo-duty free dollars you gotta do what you gotta do right?

Quickly looking past that, we’re also told that the whisky was finished in French Cognac casks for 2 years, which added sweetness and oak to the palate, along with a nose of café crème, brown sugar and soft spice.

It is also the only Glenfiddich single malt that has been finished in French Cognac casks, and is bottled at 43.8% abv.

Tasting notes:

Colour:                       

Antique gold (not just any normal gold, mind you)

Nose:                         

Vibrant and lively with an abundance of toasty oak sweetness. Reminiscent of a French pâtisserie, freshly-baked Tarte Tatin and buttery choux pastry.

Palate:                       

Deep, velvety smooth and indulgently sweet. Café crème with soft brown sugar and a hint of spice.

Finish:                        

Very long-lasting sweet oak.

It also comes in a very luxurious packaging.

My take:

Glenfiddich has been around for a long time, hence you find the distillery often casually bringing up the accolade of being the world’s most awarded whisky. As such, it is no easy feat to keep coming up with something new especially in this very fickle consumer environment where new bottles are hitting the shelves ever week.

Given they’ve been around as long as they have, they have amassed a considerable reserve of well-aged whiskies which can then be finished in every cask imaginable to man, woman and dog, in their bid to come up with something new.

Yet unfortunately, as good as their whiskies are, I’ve found them to be rather lacking in terms of excitement. Yes, yes call me fickle all you want. For awhile now, I’ve found the effect of these casks on Glenfiddich’s spirits very marginal. For the most part, they all taste the same. And why would they be different? The majority of the spirit’s life across all these releases are the same, each with simply a different finish.

Prior to the Grand Series, there was the Experimental Series, which saw Glenfiddich finish their whiskies for a couple of years in IPA casks and Ice Wine casks, and so forth. So naming aside, what’s really new? 

As contrarian as it sounds, Glenfiddich might be one of the few distilleries that could actually find new life if they focused on younger-aged whiskies.

@111hotpot