A year after our first visit to Speyside, we did the same road trip again, with a focus on different distilleries this time. The pre-booked events were a warehouse tasting at Deanston on the way up, a tour and tasting at Glenallachie, and a single cask tasting at the Glenlivet. I confess I ignored the Glenlivet last year because, as a whisky geek, I had assumed they would be a bit too mass-market compared to smaller names, but I’m very glad I put that right this year.
First, a word about the booking itself – I wanted to do the single cask tasting (same format as the one at Aberlour last year) and only checked a couple of weeks before our visit to find it was fully booked. When I contacted them to ask about the hand-fill options and to enquire about how far in advance I should book for next time, they offered to open up another slot for me. Even before our visit, then, there was a feeling that they were going the extra mile to accommodate us and make us feel welcome.
The Glenlivet Estate is more in-the-middle-of-nowhere than your average Speyside distillery, but still it was only a 20-minute drive from our Aberlour base and we managed not to get lost, despite our GPS’s best attempts to sabotage us. The visitor centre has been recently refurbished, and out of all distilleries I’ve visited it has to rank near the top in terms of ambience, with a great mix of the traditional and modern.
Andrew, who led the tasting, has ties to the area going back generations and was clearly very passionate and knowledgeable about whisky, which came particularly handy in the lengthy introduction. With quite a detailed history of the Glenlivet and illicit distillation in the area, as well as a nosing test of various signature smells (orange, pear, vanilla etc.), it was a good 40 minutes or so before the tasting actually began. If I’m honest, I think a more abridged version of the distillery’s history would have been appropriate, with a detailed account saved only for the tours, but Andrew was so engaging it never became dull.
The whiskies themselves were all Oloroso single casks, and started with a rather punchy 12 year-old that reminded me of young sherried Aberlours – with the right amount of water, however, it became much lighter and more fragrant than the one-track sherry the initial nose implied. Next up was a 13 year-old Glentauchers. It was a great idea to include something from this unsung distillery, and it didn’t disappoint – lighter, fruitier than the first Glenlivet and quite jammy, it was a delight.
We returned to Glenlivet for the final two casks – a 15 year-old first fill that was the most popular among the group, and a 16 year-old refill that was bottled at an eye-watering 62.1% ABV. It delivered a combination of fruit and spice that was subtler than the 15 year-old’s cinnamon and chocolate dominant notes. Both were excellent, and between them and the Glentauchers I doubt I could pick a single favourite.
The shop was well-stocked with exclusives, although it’s slightly annoying that, as at Strathisla (they’re both Pernod-Ricard owned) they come in 500ml bottles and, even taking their exclusivity into consideration, they’re not priced as such. No complaints about the hand-fill options, however, with a no-age statement available for £40, a 12 year-old for £50 and a 15 year-old for £70. I tried samples of all three and thought they were much lighter than the single casks and closer to the fruity and summery core range. That was hardly a surprise – as Andrew explained, they were smaller batch, cask-strength versions of the regular Glenlivet 12 and 15 expressions. The fact that you bottle them yourself from the casks is only for show compared to single cask hand-fills you can get elsewhere, but it’s a bit of theatre I don’t mind at all, and I wasted no time getting bottles of the 12 and 15.
As I was bottling them, I remarked on their great value to Andrew. ‘No, they’re not’, he replied. ‘They’re just right. Other distilleries are too expensive’. It’s hard to disagree given that all Diageo hand-fill options are £120 for 10-12 year-olds and the cask-strength version of the Solera 15 at Glenfiddich is a frankly somewhat insulting £160 (up from £130 last year, which I already thought was steep).*
I’d like to close this report, then, by saying that it’s so refreshing to see a global brand like the Glenlivet cater to regular whisky drinkers. From beginners to self-professed whisky nerds such as myself, there’s something here for everyone, including a warm welcome and a kind of hospitality normally associated with family-run operations.
*In the unlikely event anyone from Pernod-Ricard reads this, this is my opinion only – Andrew never named any competitors, although of course we both knew who they were during our chat.
The Daily Dram 