Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix

A crushed aging-building rooftop from snow weight yielded the disaster-origin story for Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix. Snow Phoenix was distillery bottled in 2010, from a mixture of malt casks, some aged in excess of 30 years. There is no age statement. The reviewed bottle belongs to my sister, and I have been sampling lightly from it for the 3 1/2 years she has had it open. The bottle is still 85 % full. I am not putting any water into this one

Nose: crisp rich wood spice of the sort typical of older Glenfiddichs; the barley-malt is very well integrated with the wood flavours. When first opened, this bottle smelled and tasted of soap, and I thought "Crap, another expensive ruined whisky!" Happily, all of the soap had blown off by a re-tasting conducted one week later. There is some tart citrus here, and quite a bit of vanilla and other flavours of oak. The oak flavours include some deeper bass-register flavours of oak, something not very common in Scottish malt. Lovely

Taste: there is a great translation to the mouth of the nose flavours; lots of oak, crisp and well-integrated with the malt. The palate has a good balance of sweet and dry with a little bitter thrown in. With the bottle long opened, the sweetness greatly increased

Finish: long finish, with all of the flavours staying strong

Balance: Snow Phoenix is a very well put-together malt, crisp and vibrant. The parts harmonise well. For me this is one of the better Glenfiddichs

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