Girvan 12 Year Old 2006 Cadenhead’s

Girvan is a relatively young distillery, founded in 1963 by the family William Grant & Sons, which we all know from Glenfiddich and Balvenie, but also from Kininvie and newcomer Ailsa Bay. Girvan was founded to produce the needed quantity of grain for the blends of the company: Grant’s. We’ll try a relatively young cask that was bottle by Cadenheads in 2018. After 12 years of maturation, it still went into the bottle at 60.3% ABV. The nose is – in its genre – pleasant. Vanilla, lime, banana, pomegranate, popcorn and a fresh leaf of mint. You would not say this is above 60%, at least not on the nose. On the palate, however, it is indeed a kick to the teeth. Your saliva glands will go into overdrive to put out the fire that just ignited on your tongue. Lots of herbal notes like camphor, green garden herbs and mint, quickly followed by vanilla ice-cream, coconut, kiwi and some rummy notes. A tad spirity, though, but all in all, this is quite a pleasant grain whisky. The finish lasts very long, is fresh on mint, vanilla and some white pepper. Lemon juice at the death. Quite creamy for such a young grain, and very sweet. The typical notes of acetone or varnish are surprisingly absent, which I feel is advantageous.