Cadenhead’s Warehouse Glen Garioch 9 year old Single Malt Review

Glen Garioch. Go on try and pronounce it for a laugh! It seems that Scottish distilleries like to give us tongue twisting, head scratching nom de plumes. Allt A’Bhainne anyone? Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Laphroaig, Nc’Nean, Teaninich…..the list could be bigger.

So to answer the riddle laid out at the onset, phonetically it’s pronounced Glen Geery! Don’t ask me how, well actually you can ask me how because it comes down to it being in the Doric dialect, a dialect with many funny words and pronounciations that I’ll let you research on your own. You didn’t expect to be given homework on here did you?

Glen Garioch is one of Scotlands oldest distillery’s dating back to 1797. Like many of Scotlands liquid gold producers it has survived ownership change, wars, prohibition and even the search for a new water source. These days it finds itself in the capable hands of Beam Suntory.

The core range features just two expressions, The Founder’s Reserve and a 12 year old. The styling of the bottle and labels are decidedly old school and I quite like that they haven’t been given a garish new makeover. Both expressions are matured in a combination of sherry and bourbon casks, they are bottled at a healthy 48% abv and are non chill filtered. They also are pretty well priced, the Founder’s Reserve selling for £38 on The Whisky Exchange and the 12 year old only being a few more quid extra at around £45 per bottle.

As it happens I haven’t tried any officially bottled Glen Garioch, only indie bottlings. In fact one of the most delicious whiskies I’ve tried was a 1975 peated Glen Garioch bottled by Samaroli courtesy of Alex from San Francisco Whisky Club.

Most of the indies have been very good in my experience and it plays well with sherry. Having the opportunity to try Glen Garioch matured in a port cask by the good folk at Cadenhead’s seemed like an interesting proposition. This is a young whisky being 9 years old, bottled at 59.3% abv and provided to me by Dramface’s Dougie Crystal. You can read his take on it here.

As ever with all things Cadenhead this whisky was non chill filtered and natural colour.

Let’s Taste.

Nose: The port influence is immediately apparent - it smells thick and chewy. Dried fruit of dates, figs and raisins. Heather honey, walnuts, oranges and dark chocolate. A hint of tobacco, digestive biscuits and some menthol. Water brings out wine gums, bread and malt.

Palate: Quite bitter compared to the nose. Spent matches, burnt orange, walnut, clove and damp cardboard. Lots of tannin. Chilli spice mid palate before sour citrus takes over. Water highlights the cardboard note even more and also brings in more sulphur.

Finish: Medium length  - quite spicy and warm from the alcohol. Tannic and sour with that damp cardboard note lingering.

Score: 4 out of 10

Overall: A disappointing palate after a rather lovely nose. The port cask seems to have taken over and not in a positive way lending way too much spice and tannic influence. I also couldn’t get past that damp cardboard note either. Not a dram I’d recommend unless you love lots of spice and cardboard.

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