Glenlivet 16 Year Old Nadurra

The Nadurra is The Glenlivet's craft whisky offering. It is non-chill filtered, bottled at cask strength and created in smaller batches. This review is for Batch 0309H bottled in March 2009.

Nose: Red Apple, Floral, faint Nutmeg Spice, Ginger. Also a buttery woody smell that I can only describe as Raw Pie Dough. Together this really gave my mind the impression of an unbaked apple pie. Adding water made the floral note quite dominant. Very long legs.

Palate: Very dry! In a very good way. It is also powerful, but before it burns you it backs off and becomes pleasant and warming. Grape, an unidentified spice, Butter, and Ginger comes back again. The body envelopes the tongue. With water there is more ginger and spice, and much less grape It also destroys the unique dryness on the palate.

Finish: Medium length, and fairly light. Mostly Oak and spice. Pleasantly warming. With water there is a sense of diluted mint.

At full strength with small sips, this is an incredible and notable whisky. I almost always prefer cask strength bottlings with at least some water added. In this case, adding water does smooth it out and is still okay, but also significantly diminishes the experience.

The nose is rich, the palate powerful, and the finish is light in comparison. At first I was disappointed by the finish but by the end of the dram it had grown on me and I found it charming and quite refreshing. I don't really know what to compare it to as it is quite unlike anything else I've had. This is a great offering and is definitely one to be tried.

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