The Singleton of Glen Ord 16 Year The Manager’s Dram
Review by: zSolaris
Distillery: Glen Ord.
Region: Highland.
Age: Bottled December 2016.
ABV: 62.00%. Cask Strength.
Price: £180.00.
Color: 0.7, Amber.
Nose: From the start comes a really intense set of fruit notes. Grapes are the main fruits here, definitely green grapes with shine muscat coming to mind. It smells like you’ve just pressed a bunch of green grapes fresh into a juice. Some other orchard fruits in the form of green apples and green pears comes through along with something that reminds me of a taffy. A bit of an earthy sugary note wraps things up.
Palate: For 62%, it should not be this easy to drink. I’ve even blind poured this for a non-whisky-nerd friend and he didn’t notice how strong it was until I showed him the bottle. Much like the nose suggests, this is very fruit heavy with more of the green grapes, champagne grapes perhaps? You get that slightly earthy sugar note again along with some grape jam. With a splash of water, the fruit notes are brighter. You get a bit of something waxy, more like a paraffin kinda wax and not the the candlewax of Clynelish. Muscat gummy candies come to mind. With a little more water, a little bit of chocolate comes out as well giving off the impression of something similar to those grape chocolate gummy candies (Meiji Gummy Choco).
Finish: Medium in length. Fairly earthy. Like the taste in your mouth you get while walking through a forest on a fall day, full foliage, bit of mist/rain.
Conclusion: /u/federalagents has raved to me about Glen Ord and specifically this bottle which was bottled as part of the “Manager’s Dram” series from Diageo. I’ve not had Glen Ord before but man is this one heckuva introduction. After opening the bottle around two weeks ago, I’ve already blown through a good third of it. It is so fruity but goes beyond just a fruit bomb. It has a lot depth to it as well with some earthiness, waxiness, “gummy”-ness, and chocolate to just add all sorts of fun notes to unearth. Overall, it is absolutely delicious and I’m left a bit sad that I didn’t make it to the Glen Ord distillery on our Scottish Highland trip last year.
Final Score: 92.
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 
