Poured from a sample of a Glen Garioch tasting in 2022.

Nose: medium sherry notes, not so dry red fruits, wow getting quite nice with red fruit jam, sweet plums, hint of sweet wood polish. With time it approaches a more dusty sherried scotch aroma set. With some water its a little bit of cake, moldy fruits, funky sherry aromas, didn't get better.

Palate: full body, gets dry, initial palate has a light red fruit syrup, mid palate gets thick and dry, with some really old dusty fruits, wood perfume, this tastes like a true dusty... like I can feel sawdust on my tongue with a slight backdrop of really dried sweetless grapes, like old tannic wine, back palate shows some wax on top of a meaty light red wine mix. With some water it becomes less dry and more approachable, the sweeter flavors are able to peek through, such as wet cake, hints of berries, and light red wine.

Finish: medium, really dry, some burnt wood, light cherrios, light earth, dried red grape skins, light mint, bitterness and dryness are mixing, virtually no evidence of fruit but more like after drinking a full bodied tannic red wine. With water, the finish shows more mint, replaces the wood elements with surprisingly young twigs or meaty vegetables.

Wow, very unexpected from the initial nose. A very dry and tannic pour, could sense very little in terms of the red fruit influence of sherry casking other than it perhaps matured too long. Adding water helped as it appeared to mute the "harder" elements. So promising. I can see why some of those old power Farclas were only 8 or 10 years old. There are some nice elements but not much skill in making over matured whiskies.

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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