Monday, May 19, 2008

Malt Mission 2008 #291

Glenburgie
Glenburgie 10 yo
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
40% abv

£24


This little known distillery is one of the most interesting in Scotland due to its down-to-business attitude, innovation over the years and use of state of the art machinery. As a major component of the Ballantines blends, Glenburgie has been a silent workhorse since 1810, when it was known as Kilnflat. It was renamed Glenburgie in 1878 and purchased by Canadian company Hiram Walker in 1936, the time after which it became a key ingredient in Ballantines blended whiskies.

Between 1958 and 1981, Glenburgie also produced a spirit with Lomond stills called Glencraig, which, with any luck, can still be found from time to time. I recently had an excellent bottling of Glencraig from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

Owned by Chivas Brothers (Pernod Ricard) since 2005, official bottlings do not currently exist (there is a 15yo from 2002 that is hard to find) and this expression is from Gordon and Macphail.

TASTING NOTES:

Hard and clean, even metallic. Dry and mineral with some fruitiness and maltiness like apple cider and oat cakes. Red grapefruit, red cabbage, and some buttery sherried tones, too.

Thin impact in the texture, some undesirable heat, but rich with fruit and maltiness. Honey, vanilla, dry sherry, too. Lingering and spicy.

SUMMARY:

Whisky really is a drink that demands that the drinker slows down. This reminds me of that fact because this whisky needed some time to warm up to me, or vice versa. Good, simple, easy drinker at a brilliant price. I quite dig the simplicity of the label, too.


Malt Mission #290
Malt Mission #292
Malt Mission #293
Malt Mission #294
Malt Mission #295

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