Over to Glengoyne for a 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel that was filled in August of 2008. Sweet, Fruity & Mellow profile.
Nose: Sweet and highly floral. Strawberries, cream and meringue (an Eton Mess right there) combine with rosewater and tinges of lavender and lilies. Candyfloss (this is a well named bottle) provides both additional sweetness and a touch of fizzing fruit. Reduced, this expresses the qualities of the ex-bourbon cask - fresh cotton sheets, toasted oak and vanilla cream.
Taste: Quite viscous on arrival and packed full of juicy fruit content. Reduced jammy red berries join zesty citrus and young sappy wood. In the mid palate, dusty spices (tingly pepper and chilli) are joined by a touch of minerality and further floral embellishments – freshly cut herbs and honeysuckle. The addition of water brings out some underlying earthiness as well as allowing the wood to exert itself – this adds a sense of dryness as well as oak tannins.
Finish: Medium in length with tart berry fruit and plenty of drying wood.
Those nose on this Glengoyne is terrific – a perfect marriage of fruity and floral. The palate and finish don’t quite reach the same dizzy heights, but still deliver impactful well-balanced fruit flavour, spice and dryness. There’s an unsurprising prickliness to 61.9% ABV – whilst water certainly reduces this, it impacts the overall balance and adds a bit too much wood for my liking. It might be big, but I’d personally stick to this at the strength it’s been delivered at.