Ord – sometimes also referred to as “Glen Ord” is a rather unknown distillery. There are no official bottlings – well, almost. Owners Diageo bottle it in their very confusing (and mostly underwhelming) “Singleton” line of malts – the same branding is used for three different distilleries and each version is only available in a specific market. Way back when (Glen) Ord was bottled under its own name with an age statement it happened to be my first bottle of Single Malt. Now if I could only remember if it was the 8 or the 12 yo… Anyway, as my first proper single malt, this big – and since massively expanded – distillery has a special place in my heart. Cadenhead’s recently released a 14-year-old expression in their Summer 2019 batch 2 and the folks at the Vienna shop were kind enough to provide me with a miniature. Let’s give it a taste and see if I will part with some of my hard-earned money to pick up a full-size bottle!
Dram data:
Distillery: Ord
Bottler: Cadenhead’s
Distilled: 2005
Bottled: Summer 2019
Age: 14 yo
Limitation:
Cask: bourbon hogshead
Alcohol: 54,8%
no colouring added / not chill filtered
Whiskybase link
Colour
Straw
Nose
A light and citrus-y start, I guess you could call it a summer whisky. Freshly squeezed lemons and limes, cake icing, orange blossom, sugared cream and maybe a touch of pepper and a hint of oak. Quite in line with the lightness of previous bottlings from this distillery I’ve encountered. There might not be too much going on in terms of variety, but what is there is a dense mixture that works.
Score: 83/100
Taste
More of the same – big on the citrus and alcohol, so let me add a good measure of water before continuing. Right. So we’ve got citrus, icing sugar, orange blossom, blossom honey, apricots and a touch of tinned fruits. Light and fruity – yet quite a thick and viscous mouthfeel that works quite well.
Score: 85/100
Finish
Quite viscous and sweet upon swallowing (icing sugar with freshly squeezed lemon). Further down the line some oaky notes paired with apricots, a touch of tinned fruits and some blossom honey appear that linger around for quite a while.
Score: 85/100
Verdict
An uncomplicated summer dram that is in no way boring or undermatured. Creamy, oily yet on the light side with lots of sweet fruit and citrus notes. It immediately reminds me of a 10-year-old version that was bottled a while ago, but it’s more rounded and behaved, which is reflected in the higher score. So, will I get one? Well, I’ll put it on the list of options – I’ve got a few more samples from recent Cadenhead’s releases to go through before I make up my mind. For 68€ at the time of writing it’s definitely not a bad buy…
Overall Score: 84/100
Check out the archive of all (Glen) Ord whiskies I’ve tasted so far!
The sample for this review was kindly provided by Cadenhead’s Whisky shop in Vienna. No other compensation was provided.