Glenglassaugh 26 Year Old

Glenglassaugh distillery is located in Speyside, close to the town of Portsoy, and was established in 1875. The distillery was sold to Highland Distillers in 1892 and remained in their possession until 2008 (by when they had become a part of The Edrington Group). Production was stopped in 1986, arguably as a consequence of the not-so-impressive economics of a comparatively small and remote distillery, only to be reopened in 2009 after it had been acquired by the Scaent Group. In 2013, Glenglassaugh distillery was purchased by The Benriach Distillery Company who have been operating it ever since. This particular bottling is a 26-year old (bottle #1909) that was added to the distillery's core range in spring of 2010 when it was still part of the Scaent Group. It has since been replaced by a 30-year old.

The nose begins with light notes of rubber (but in a good way), followed by flavours of plums and figs but again quite delicate. Then things gets more grassy and malty, and notes of caramel appear at the end.

The palate is medium-bodied and starts with a good portion of wood spice. Then, similarly to the nose, grassy notes develop, followed by flavours of mint, liquorice and milk chocolate.

The finish is long and warming. There still is a touch of wood spice but now at much reduced intensity, followed by notes of mint and liquorice.

I do not have an awful lot of experience with Glenglassaugh and was happy to pick up a bottle two years ago before this release got replaced by the 30-year old bottling. This is the result of solid distiller's work, and the alcohol and oak are very well integrated. However, I am not too fond of grassy notes in whisky and so this did not score as highly as it might have had.

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