Review by: The Muskox

This was the finale of last night’s Glenfiddich tasting. At this point we’d tried the very tasty 14-year-old Bourbon Barrel Reserve, the aggressively mediocre 18 year, the solid-but-not-great Project XX, and the very light but rather tasty Orchard Experiment. This whisky is heavily marketed for its supposed luxury, with very fancy packaging and a downright garish website. It’s finished in French “cuvee” wine casks, which aren’t fully explained but are heavily hinted at with the luxury theme and references to brioche notes on the back label. Clearly these casks are from a region that sounds like “mansplain”.

Unfortunately, this whisky was bottled at 40… if my experiences with other low-proof <21yo Glenfiddichs is anything to go by, this might be boring…

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Distillery: Glenfiddich.

Bottler: Official bottling.

Region: Speyside.

ABV: 40%.

Age: 23 years.

Cask type: Initially matured in American oak casks, then finished for 4-6 months in “Grand Cru” champagne casks.

Price: $600 CAD.

Color: e150. Chill-filtered.

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Nose: That smells like an old whisky! There’s a shocking beeswax note right out of the gate. Those brioche notes are here too, along with flaky pastries, apple crumble, and browned butter. There’s sweet fruit, too – some mango, muscat grapes, citrus peels, lemon bars, and a tropical sort of banana-sap note. Hints of lavender.

Palate: Medium texture. Soft arrival, with pear, mango, citrus zest, honey, and toasted marshmallow. Lots of buttery pastries and brioche in the middle, then developing to resinous oak, old books, more browned butter, and a clear and bright tropical top note. Some cocoa powder and nutmeg. Hints of mint and stonefruit towards the back end.

Finish: Medium. The palate notes mostly carry through – old oak and books, guava, peaches, and citrus. Additional flavours of creamy almonds and cask char join after a little while.

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Possible SMWS bottling name: “New Year’s toast with guava jelly”

Conclusion: …Okay. This is seriously good. There are real old-whisky notes in here – beeswax, tropical fruit, old books… the kind of stuff you usually have to go to auction to find and are conspicuously missing in other old official bottlings. It’s still cheaper to find something like that at auction than to buy this, but I like that there’s an off-the-shelf, well-distributed option for those flavours. This is incidentally the best 40% whisky I’ve ever had, by far. It drinks way above its strength, in complexity, mouthfeel, and flavour punch. Would it be better at higher proof? Obviously, yes, but it’s delicious as is. It’s still a Glenfiddich, so it’s a fairly light whisky, but it has fantastic elegance and balanced sweetness. A total winner.

Final Score: 86.

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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.