Review by: dustbunna
Distillery: Glenglassaugh.
Bottler: Distillery bottling.
Region: Highlands, Scotland.
ABV: 50.5%.
Age: NAS. Bottled in 2023.
Cask type: Vatting of ex-bourbon, ex-Oloroso sherry, and ex-Manzanilla casks.
Price: $54 USD for 700mL.
Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.
Bottle open across approx. 5 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: sea spray, banana, mango, jasmine, guava, pineapple cake.
Palate: medium body ~ more bananas, salt, white grapes, more guava, dried papaya, rich vanilla cream, dried pineapple.
Finish: medium-short ~ Dole fruit cups with syrup, oak tannins, more dried papaya, dry grass.
Thoughts: This was a refreshing surprise. Glenglassaugh hadn’t really been on my radar for a long time, outside of a couple of great older single casks shared by a friend. When they re-did their core range in 2023, I attended a Brown-Forman tasting that included the new 12yr, Portsoy, and this Sandend, and I came away impressed by all of them. Then Sandend won some award and every liquor store upped the price and put it behind locked glass, so I waited for all that nonsense to die down. I found this particular bottle on sale earlier this year.
In a rare occurrence, I’m actually in complete agreement with the tasting notes on the bottle. I don’t know Glenglassaugh’s spirit well enough to know whether it’s distillate or cask causing all kinds of tropical fruit to appear in this, but it’s definitely there in spades—and accented nicely by jasmine tea, vanilla, and salt. It’s a lovely, lovely profile, and not one I often find in Scotch under $100 because typically notes like this take some aging to show up. I wonder if they used some older whisky to make this NAS release (or maybe this batch, which was the inaugural one and probably represented their best foot forward as far as the blending goes.) In any case, I very much enjoyed this, especially over the summer when its lighter, fruitier profile seemed to mesh perfectly with the warm weather.
Final Score: 85.
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 