Glendower 12 Year Old 1975 Pure Malt

Glendower is a blended malt that was succesful (sorta) a few decades ago. It was called a pure malt at the time, of course. Does that not sound much better than blended malt? There was a 3, 8, 15 and 21 years old, but exclusively for the French market, there was also a 12 Year Old from 1975, which thus must have been released somewhere at the end of the eighties. ‘Cuvée Spéciale 1975 – 12 and ‘d’age’ says the label. I am tasting from a miniature.

Bright nose with a spicy feistiness offering some nougat, citrus, banana and barley sugars. A pleasant surprise, surely. After a few moments this evolves towards wine gums and other gummi candy. So… very sweet.

The arrival is soft, the texture quite light, but not unpleasant. Honeysweet on the palate, with guimauve and Haribo bears. The sweetness is totally candy-like and absolutely devoid of fruitiness. Bit of a shame, really. Soft spices try to save the day, but it’s not going to happen.

The finish is more of the same, maybe even sweeter still, but quite short – which is not a problem in this case. You do not want to have this linger in your mouth too long.

It started off quite good on the nose, but that’s where it ended as well.