Glen Garioch 12 Year Old

This is a review of the new bottling, not the one with the stag, at 48%.

Nose: The nose without water is a bit congested to me: powerful sweetness and woman's perfume. After adding two teasponns of water, the whisky opened up. Crème brûlée, brown sugar, pears, vanilla, overripe bananas and flowers. A previous reviewer mentionned smoke and there is effectively a very vague hint of smokiness, the kind you get when you try to start a bonfire with wet and green wood. After 30 minutes, I got more menthol (crème de menthe, mint chocolate) and hard candy.

Palate: Medium bodied. With two teasponns of water: roasted nuts, crème brûlée again, sweet malt, fruits in a compote, hard candy, minty chocolate, then the whisky turns a bit tannic and bittwersweet on me. Not necessarily a bad thing and not offputting, but I would've like to continue the visit to the candyshop a bit longer...

Finish: Not terribly long. This is 12 year old after all. Flowers with cocoa nibs and maybe, maybe a hint of smokyness. This is this whisky's low point.

A good bottle that needs, in my very own opinion, a bit of water to show its true potential. For an entry malt, it shows character and it drinks like an older whisky. This is less syrupy/honeyish than the old 12 year old bottling and I prefer this version. A good option at this pricepoint (60ish $ CAN in Quebec). For the whyski drinker that likes a sweeter and subtle (without being insipid) dram.

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