Glenlivet 18 Year Old

Old gold in colour, maybe even a touch of red gold about it. I used to love this expression for its plumy fruity flavours which were fairly unique, but in recent years it’s lost that profile and become more aromatic.

The aroma is not immediately very interesting but if you get your nose down and concentrate a plethora of distinct hints crystallise out. I get orange, aniseed, pear, coriander and caraway seeds and a touch of sherry. On the palate it’s medium bodied, the oranges are there immediately but fade into the background as a slightly bitter complex aromatic flavour comes to dominate rather like dry vermouth, rather odd.

The finish is a little empty, like you’d get after a dry vodka martini, some alcohol burn lets you know you’ve had a drink and the bitter after effects of the aromatics do hang around a while but this is whisky and malt whisky at that. Its scored rather better than this review reads, probably because I like these kinds of flavours, but I’m not sure many would agree, and I still preferred it the way is was several years ago.

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