Glenlivet 18 Year Old

Im kind of curious of exploring more from The Glenlivet label after tasting the great Nadurra. The 12yo dosnt sound to interesting, but your review of the 18yo makes my mouth water.

It's certainly well worth a try - and fairly reasonably priced too (at least it is here in Australia, your mileage may vary in other parts of the world).

Sounds really quite sumptuous

It is very nice - and it has really made me interested in the Glenlivet range - especially the Nadurra. Up until now, I was pretty blase about everything Glenlivet.

Interesting indeed as Glenlivet 12yo was my first venture into things followed by the HP 18yr. Hence I am now curious to see how the Glenlivet 18yo shapes up after your positive review...good stuff!

Had another dram of this last night, and I'm still impressed by it. Definitely worth looking at.

I love Livet 18yr and your review is most excellent. If I may offer another 18yr to try, give Glenfiddich 18yr. I can't explain it any other way except as they're very very similar. They're different but the qualities are stupendous or supperb.

@WPT - My review of the Glenfiddich 18 is here: connosr.com/reviews/glenfiddich/…

...and yes there certainly are similarities, but I would have to say I prefer the Glenlivet!

@jdcook Thanks for the information on your Fiddich 18 review. And I agree on your choice. If both were available I'd take both and drink the Livet 18 1st. But then again that would put me in a contradiction with one of your last sugguestions, in your Fiddich 18 review. That was to "drink the Glenfiddich 18 1st". So, I'm going to do that and save the best for last. Forgive me I don't know how to use this web site yet and how you veterans use it. I'm a green horn beginner having just joined in December. Sorry, for the bit of a rant. I appreciate your reviews. Thank you.

@WPT - No biggie on the not knowing how to use the site, we're all (mostly) amateurs here (at least I am) and we're pretty easy going (although whisky scoring can rouse some passions!). Everyone is new somewhere once!

My reasoning behind the Glenfiddich first is because it is a very gentle and subtle drink, so if you drink the Glenlivet 18 (or pretty much any other single malt) beforehand, my thinking was that you would lose the ability to distinguish the subtleties of the Glenfiddich because they would be drowned out by the stronger, 'louder' flavours of the other malt. Just like you can't drink most speysiders after trying an Islay or two. So I would drink the Glenfiddich first because otherwise you wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much, which would be a shame because it is a genuinely good whisky (in my opinion).

@jdcook That's interesting on how the malts of different origins reaction to each other. I've never paid any attention to that. I like history and this kinda info I'll learn and use. The only criteria I've considered is hey let's try that one or the suggustion from the package liqoure store boss on duty. Really thought out and logical, wouldn't you say? I knew logical in my previous job as a mainframe programmer/analyst. Now my job is disability and home work.

@WPT - it's just like you don't drink gentle white wines after a big heavy red - you just don;t taste much because the red has overwhelmed your palate. So Islays, which are big peaty, smoky whiskies with more taste than you can often chew, drown out their gentler Speysider cousins. They aren;t better or worse, but they are louder! And the Glenfiddich 18 year old is one of the gentlest whiskies I've come across, so I would always make it first in my tastings, because it is the most 'softly spoken' whisky I've come across.

@jdcook I like Glenfiddich 18 for similar reasons as you accurately described. Glenlivet 18 and Glenfiddich 18 stand alone on their own. Their differences make them unique and very tasty. Thanks for allowing me to beat a dead horse over this one whisky. Nice conversing with you. Have good day.

@WPT - Completely agree! And feel free to dead horse away any time, that's what this place is for!

I tasted the Fiddich 18yr, and absolutely hated it. In fact, I had to nearly scrub out my mouth before proceeding with the rest of our tastings. The finish was that awful. The 15yr was drinkable, and the 12yr was downright boring. However, this tasting was a multiple whisky tasting, and I forget which order I had the Fiddich's. While I may chalk up the boring tastes to the fact it was tasted '2nd', but that finish can't be excused, regardless of taste order.

I have stated before that I don't care for the Glenlivet range, but I couldn't remember which ones I have tasted (12-18yr, probably; not the Nadurra; none of the older 21+yr expressions). I stumbled upon miniatures of the 15yr French Oak Reserve and the 18yr, and picked them up to give them one more try. After reading this review, I am now looking forward to trying the 18yr, and hope that I either misjudged it before (possibly because it was 2nd or 6th in a tasting lineup), or it is a new one on me.

@jwise - that sounds like you got a bad one! I've never heard of someone having a bad reaction to the finish of the Glenfiddich 18 - the worst I've heard is that people didn't find anything to notice, so it was pleasant, but boring (as it is a fairly subtle dram). I would try it again sometime as a stand alone drink with no ice, as the ice kills the subtleties of this whisky, leaving it truly boring!