Review by: dustbunna
Glen Grant is one of those distilleries I’ve somehow missed in my journey up to now. The 15yr in their core range was first released in 2019 at a higher-than-their-average bottling strength of 50% ABV, and is matured entirely in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels. I’ll admit I was seduced by the very reasonable price of $60 out the door for a malt of this age. Let’s see what’s here.
Distillery: Glen Grant.
Bottler: Distillery bottling.
Region: Speyside.
ABV: 50%.
Age: 15 years. Bottled in 2019.
Cask type: 1st-fill ex-bourbon barrels.
Price: $60 USD.
Color added. Non-chill-filtered.
Bottle open across approx. 3 months, notes taken leisurely across that period. Bold notes taken beneath the shoulder, regular-formatted notes taken further into the bottle past the halfway point, italicized notes taken towards the heel.
Nose: malt, green apple Jolly Ranchers, vanilla, acetone, some gummy candies in the background, acetone comes forward.
Palate: medium body ~ more malt with a bitter, funky note in the background sawdust, mango, flattens out without much development.
Finish: medium-short ~ more of whatever that bitter note is from the palate, more malt and vanilla, chocolate gelt and wood spice on the tail end.
Conclusion: I kept waiting for this one to unlock, but have a feeling I might have waited for a long, long time. zSolaris got a sample of this bottle from basically the neck pour, when it was very clearly at its best, and found that adding water kind of destroyed it, bringing out the acetone in spades and flattening everything out. Well, unfortunately, as malt sometimes goes with water added, so it goes with time added as well. This Glen Grant does start to air out a bit with lots of time, but never loses its ethanol-forward rough edges, nor does it develop anything really interesting flavor-wise. It makes a great highball, and that’s about as much praise as I can give this whisky, which is frankly not enough to justify a $60 price tag (which is the *low* end of what this goes for, as far as I can tell.)
Pass the ice.
Final Score: 58.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 