Dram data:
Distillery: Glen Albyn
Bottler: Gordon & MacPhail
Distilled: 1976
Bottled: 2012
Age: ca. 36 years
Limitation: –
Casks: Ex-sherry
Alcohol: 43%
chill filtered, uncoloured
Whiskybase link
Tasting notes:
Colour: apple juice
My first Glen Albyn – a lost Inverness distillery, founded in 1846 and closed during the miserable 80s whisky downturn in 1983. Bottlings of this distillery are getting very scarce these days…
The nose opens with notes of dusty apple strudel with sugar (no raisins!), old mashed banana, icing sugar with a drop of lemon, rich, creamy old oak and dried orange zest. Very, very mellow and well-aged! The palate has notes of white and red apples – very light, actually, light spices and a lot of creaminess. Old, dried oranges, a hint of cardboard and an old banana with peel with a fragrant oak and a whiff of dusty old cellar (yep!) in the background. The very long finish is, again, very mellow and throat-coating, slightly dry with cask spices, old malty sweetness, drying down to more oak towards the end.
Verdict:
Oh, now that’s a very enjoyable, rich, mellow (from old age) dram. A bit of sweetness paired with spices and oak notes but not unpleasantly overwhelming in any of these elements. Very well-matured indeed, a pleasure having gotten to try it!
Score: 88/100
(Nose: 89 Palate: 87 Finish: 87)
Thanks to Keith Wood for the dram!