Glenlivet 12 Year Old

Always interesting to see two reviews of the same whisky in quick succession bit.ly/fZDo4u to compare views.

After I saw the "Shame, shame, shame" review, I just had to copy my review on the Glenlivet 12 at WhiskyIsrael.co.il here.

I think it's a fine dram and actaully purchased a bottle after I wrote those notes 2 weeks ago :)

It's a good dram and I think your review balances things out nicely.

Thank you!

Interesting. I've definitely had the Glenlivet 12 year old and had a similar experience. My review was based on my bottle that I purchased around a couple months ago. I can honestly say that my bottle is noticeably lower in quality than the three or fours times that I've had this at a bar. Good to hear that you liked your bottle.

As Jim Murray is frequently pointing out, whiskies vary in taste profiles over time, sometimes a great deal. These taste migrations can be noticeable over a few years of release time, and sometimes they are very noticeable from one year to the next. I had a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label some years ago that was absolutely foul, but I have tasted samples in recent years that I could enjoy.

I agree, that can happen. Therefore it is usually best, if possible, to try a whisky several times over long periods of time. The notes I wrote here are based on a sample 50ml bottle I was given.

After I bought a "real" bottle, I was happy to learn that the spirit it contained is not too far from what I wrote initially (bit more zesty and tad more citrusy).

I say that every dram one doesn't favor at first attempt, should be given at least one more chance at a different time. After all not only the bottle can affect the taste - sickness, room temp, air around us etc.

For example I bought a Lagavulin DE 1993. When I first tried it I was horrified (really foul). Tried it again after 2 months - it was much more pleasant and likable. Then I tried it just 2 days ago again - I couldn't finish it and pured it into a plant. And this was the same bottle!

Quality between bottling and surely between years can change, and we must take that into consideration when dramming :)

Shokkas, your paragraph about the Lagavulin DE sounds almost exactly like my relationship with my last bottle of Clynelish 14 year old! Bah, good whisky, bad whisky, great whisky, ok whisky...cheers to all whisky and all the great things it has given me!

@shokkas, your decription of your Lagavulin DE 1993 experience brings up yet another point: some whiskies change taste substantially within weeks and months after a bottle is opened. I suspect that in the case of your Lag 93 experience that this was largely a whisky open bottle taste evolution experience and not simply different circumstances and moods of you, the drammer. In the case of bourbons, especially, the "open bottle taste evolution phenomenon" can be enormous. I see it to a lesser degree with malts, but I perceive that it does indeed occur.