With a name like this, I’m expecting a youthful wood-fest. It hails from Glengoyne and is 9 years of age. Sweet & Spicy profile.
Nose: Tons of shortbread are merged with butterscotch, warm toffee sauce, vanilla beans and digestive biscuits. There’s less oakiness than I was expecting, but still a sense of young sappiness mixed with freshly planed 2x4. In the background, percolated coffee and underlying floralness – nettles, lavender and cut grass. Reduction added some fruit sugars into the equation – raspberry and cranberry.
Taste: Quite punchy, and whilst not in any way raw, quite boozy all the same. Chocolate and fudge are tempered by both tart and sharp fruitiness (red berries) and cask spicing – white pepper and capsicum. In the mid-palate, savoury cream crackers, demi-sweet white wine (a well-aged Riesling perhaps?) and a touch of vanilla bean. The addition of water softened the prickle and spices, but also reduced the overall definition of the whisky. An uneasy compromise.
Finish: Medium to long with dusty wood merging with overt oakiness, milk chocolate and oatcakes.
There’s a few things to like about this Glengoyne from the warm sweet nose through to the bold spicy development – but at the same time there’s not a great deal of balance here and the cask is constantly fighting for dominance over the spirit. Only available as part of this month’s pair, trio and sextuplet offerings – alas it feels like a bit of a weak link.