Glenturret 12 year old Single Malt Review

Glenturret. This was a distillery that I’d pretty much never heard of until the rebrand of 2020. The whisky produced at this distillery was available as a single malt prior to 2020 with peated and sherry cask expressions but most of what it produced went towards the Famous Grouse brand and so Glenturret wasn’t really marketed or talked about. That is until 2020.

In 2019 the distillery was sold to the luxury brand Lalique. Most whisky aficionados felt this was not going to be a good thing for Glenturret. It smacked of ultra premiumisation in the mold of Glenrothes, Macallan and Mortlach. This was going to be another style over substance liquid that commanded absorbitant asking prices and a nose dive in liquid quality. Except it wasn’t.

2020 saw the release of the new Lalique inspired rebrand. Yes the bottle was pretentious, yes it was pricey (at the time) for a 12 year old, in fact it was more expensive than the Macallan 12 year old sherry cask, but it turned out to be actually very good. Well I say that, unfortunately I never got to try the 2020 release but by all accounts those in the whisky world whose palates I trust assured me it was indeed very, very good and well worth the asking price.

Thankfully I did manage to get my hands on a sample of the 2021 release (so yet again I’m only around 4 years behind the curve on this one) and I’m happy to present my thoughts to you today dear reader.

So yes the pretentious bottle remains and I have to say I’m not entirely taken with the bottle design or label but that’s just me. It’s bottle at 46% abv and I have no information about whether it is coloured or non chill filtered but I expect it probably is. Currently the 2024 bottling will set you back £62.50 on Master of Malt.

Let’s taste!

Nose: A richly sherried and decadent nose. Malt loaf, stroopwaffles, dates, chocolate covered raisins and caramel. Vanilla cream, candied orange peel, baking spices and black licorice. Leather, beeswax and furniture polish. Some copper too.

Palate: A nice oily mouthfeel - not too sweet or overtly sherried. The malt is present with lovely biscuity notes, apple crumble and custard, caramel drizzled pastry with sultanas and dates. Cinnamon, a little tobacco, orange oil and black pepper.

Finish: Medium length with woody spices, sweetened espresso, some menthol and even a little cherry.

Score: 7 out of 10

Overall: This is a really tasty dram with good balance and complexity. It may seem pricey for a 12 year old but as we know older doesn’t mean better and this for me is well worth the price. If it was a little cheaper, say £65 i think we’d be into an 8 for this. Well worth investigating.

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