A 9 year old Glendullan matured in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead. Young & Spritely profile.
Nose: Fruits and flans. An infusion of pear and ginger cordial with vanilla cream buns, sponge cake and freshly baked biscuits. In the mid-palate, earthy spices and a pang of minerality (wet slate) and salinity. Reduced, there’s a sense of juiciness with press grapes and pear liqueurs.
Taste: A fizzy arrival filled with sharp and tart grapefruit juice (with some champagne bubbles), white pepper, fiery ginger and granite-like minerality. The mid-palate offers a slightly change of mouthfeel with a chalky texture which is followed by earthy woodiness and a hint of salinity (salted peanuts). The addition of water offers up some cask influence in the form of vanilla, whilst also particularly expressing the ginger spice characteristic further.
Finish: Short, quite dry and with quite a lot of wood – planking, wood shavings, coconut and vanilla.
This Glendullan arrives rather hot and prickly with both alcohol and spices. There’s a bit too much cask influence here for my liking – particular from the mid-palate through to the finish. The nose however is very appealing, offering rich syrupy orchard fruits and plenty of underlying spirit character. A bit of a mixed bag.