Glen Grant 10 Year Old

So, I'm still wandering around the lower range priced single malts, and the Glen Grant 10 year old fulfilled the next step of my whisky journey.

Nose: Brisk caramel, pear, honey, cereals, slightly floral, vegetal, hay, fresh.

Palate: Delicate, light caramel with the freshness of confectioners sugar. Light honey, pears, hay. A fresh vegetal quality that reminds me of the green freshness of Dill.

Finish: Short to medium. The freshness remains, followed by the honey, caramel sweetness and a slight bitterness. Almost no spice, very smooth.

One of the easiest whiskies to drink. Very smooth and sweet. Not too complex.

I was advised that this is a good everday malt (a gentleman's term for when after tasting four of your best ones and your taste buds and judgement are gone, you need to switch to something cheaper to avoid wasting the good ones).

Well this one tastes like apples and spice and is certainly more interesting than the 12 year olds from Glenfiddich and Glenlivet, but I would still prefer to use Aberlour 12 and/or Auchentoshon 12 to serve the purpose of not wasting the good stuff when one's judgmement is gone. By themselves, these two just mentioned are still good stand alone malts that can hold their own.

A great all rounder. If you want to know what a great malt whiskey should be like, this is it. You can use this to judge others by. I would recomend to anyone, and would be suprised if you did not like it.

The Glen Grant 10 Year Old is not much more expensive than the Major’s Reserve, but is still an entry level malt. It matured on bourboncasks as well, but was then recasked for a final period of a year in sherry casks.

The nose offers white orchard fruit (green apples and pears), with hints of vanilla, immediately upholstered with oranges, toffee and clear hints of dried grass. Nutmeg and cinnamon. But it is all very lightfooted. A bit too light, to be honest.

On the palate, it shows a light body with loads of vanilla, breakfast cereals and some woodspice. Even some sultanas. The sweet malt stays in the lead and again turns this into an effortless malt.

The finish is short, light on pepper, apples and oak, with a slightly bitter finale.

This is as easy as the NAS-version The Major’s Reserve (which I favour). Still less than 25 EUR.

This is a review of a newly opened bottle. I will add updates to reflect significant oxidative effects, as needed

Nose: very pungent combination of refined high-pitched wine fruitiness, rosewater, carnations, vanilla, "old oranges" to which Mr. Murray alluded, and a maltiness showing sweet lemon. A very nice nose, with a nice balance of sweet and dry

Taste: the fruitiness is still here on the palate, but the barley comes out much more fully than in the nose. The body is thin and light. There is vanilla and citrus together with the grapiness. Very tasty

Finish: the fruit and malt flavours do a long finish on a rather astringent dryness, which is a bit much, even for a dry-whisky-lover like me

Balance: there is balance in nose and on the palate, but not on the finish. This is pleasant when you want these wine flavours in an easy drinking 40% ABV whisky, but I find the finish to be a disappointment