Glengoyne 14 year old
A lesson in greed
2 481
Review by @conorrob
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall81
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A naturally coloured whisky from a distillery which advertises the fact that it has the slowest stills in Scotland. Olorosso sherry casks are used in maturation.
Nose A soft waft of vanilla and caramel accompany glacè cherries. Ginger and cream round off a well balanced and gentle nose. For those in Britain Fox’s crunch biscuits come to mind.
Palate Cereal, ginger and sweetened cream make a meal of this dram. Sweet Medjool dates, a dash of cinnamon and bitter orange peel.
Finish A medium finish jam packed full of sweet dates and wood spice. Cinnamon and orange peel linger.
This scotch is sweet and soft, if someone told me this was 20% abv i don’t think I would question them. A whisky I would gladly sip for hours... if I were after something easy and sweet. My greatest negative, and one which I feel has a hugely detrimental effect is that 40% is just far too low an abv for this scotch. It could handle much more and would benefit greatly for every %. The only reason I can see for Glengoyne bottling at 40% is greed. And for this reason, this whisky misses the mark.
Saying all that... At the £35 I paid for it in An offy in London Liverpool Street... I would buy every bottle I happened to lay eyes on...
Cheers
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I tried a sample of this and put a review up earlier this year. I'd say you sum up my experience pretty closely as in, a good enough whisky but it seriously needs some oomph!
On the greed thing: Whilst it obviously suits their pockets to bottle at 40% remember this is a bottling for M&S. Do they have discerning whisky customers? Yes, more than likely but I'd say this is aimed more at the casual sipper who wants something a bit different for their Xmas/birthday annual bottle. And at that, it probably works and is very enjoyable to them - 'smooth' you see