Moving closer towards the finale of the Boutique-y 2017 Advent calendar and today we’re off to Elgin in Speyside for a 17 year old Glenlossie. The distillery’s stills have several recognisable features – they’re onion shaped, fitted with purifier pipes and heated through direct fire – our Boutique-y label highlights all of these elements...using onions of course!
Nose: Pronounced honey with discernible nutty and biscuity elements. Earthy ginger and damp soils meet with baked apples, peaches and nectarines. Water brings out some dustiness and further enhances the stone fruits.
Taste: Full-bodied, malty and with juicy, but sour fruits. Vanilla and wood planking come together with vivid fruits – oranges and apples in particular – for a salivating, but sour and slightly astringent experience. Cask influence is high with both acerbic wood, ginger and a lick of salt in play. The addition of some hydration is highly beneficial, reducing some of the more acrid flavours and adding in barley water, toasts and biscuits and a light dusting of pepper.
Finish: Medium in length and highlighting sour fruit and oak dryness.
An interesting Glenlossie with plenty of distillery character (nuts and biscuits to my taste), but with quite some sourness along for the ride. Water (sparingly) greatly tempers both the wood and tart fruits, making for a still astringent, but lick smacking and salivating experience.