Glenburgie Archives 1995

Thanks to /u/devoz for this sample.

As many of you have seen, there’s some holes in my posts. And by holes, I mean that I’ve done over 1117 reviews and some distilleries have slipped through.

I mean, I’m actually human, contrary to some of the popsicle stick body part rumours that are out there.

One of the many distilleries I’ve missed is Glenburgie. No, this wasn’t made up by a TV show, it’s not famous based on a Bob Saget dub, and no, it’s not one you may have heard of. Right now it’s the closest thing we get to hipsters in our hipster rich whisky group.

Feel dirty yet? Well you haven’t drank enough then.

Glenburgie started legal, official running under the name Klinflat (gesundheit) in 1829. There are rumours that they started two decades earlier, because (and I’m quoting here) “Fuck the Police”.

Since then, it was closed for eight years between 1870 and 1878, sold off two years later, was dodgy for a bit, became a limited company in 1895, liquidated in 1925, closed for 1927 to 1935, sold to Hiram Waker and Gooderham & Worts Ltd. (Canadians and Scots, gross) in the 1930s, had two Lomond Stills put in in 1958, had them ripped out in 1981, and then closed again in 2000. It’s running again now. Also it was sold in 1987, 1994, and then sold to Pernod Ricard in 2005.

After new buildings were built in 2004.

This poor distillery, who sold under the name Glencraig for a long time there, is now back, and have 6 stills going now. It’s used in blends like Ballantine’s and Old Smuggler.

What do we have today? Well Glenburgie Archives 1995, from the Fish of Somoa line. If you’re wondering, the fish is the eques americanus, the Ribbon-Fish. The specific piece of artwork is from the book “Ichthyologie, ou Histoire Naturelle, Generale et Particulaire”.

So let’s see how this tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Speyside

Age: 21 years old

Vintage: 07.06.1995

Bottled: 25.10.2016

Cask Type: Hogshead

Cask Number: 6282

Number of Bottles: 278

Abv: 54.1%

Colour: 7.5Y 9/6

Nose: Mango, candy, grassy, lemon pie, violets, nectarine jam

Fruity. Nice nose to it. Good amount of sweet notes, lots of citrus. If you like floral, this nose is for you, because eventually that’s the main side to it.

Little bit of butter in there too. I do love my butter, especially baked.

Taste: Lemongrass, basil, apple, strawberry, peach tart, cooked fatty ham

Herbal on the taste. Eventually that has it’s time, and steps aside for some more fruit, with some butter, mirroring and tying it to the taste. Good times.

Then it has this fatty, meat flavour. What I’m saying is: Loophole for you vegetarians. Good times.

Finish: Lemon parfait, peanut, arugula, espresso, nectarine, mesquite, cumin, apple sauce

Finish is much more complex than the nose or taste. Both of those were nice, though more teasing at something more complex, especially after 21 years.

Now we have an interesting, smoke filled earth flavour, mixed with the light fruit flavours. It shouldn’t work, but it does. I can’t explain it, like magnets.

Conclusion: Wow, I should be drinking more of these. Who have thunk it? Oh, wait, both devoz and /u/xile_ would have. Dammit.

Really interesting malt. They take the idea of tropical fruit, add some citrus, grassy notes, and slowly ramp you up to a nice palate cleansing finish. It’d be nice to have after dinner, as it tastes like a dessert dram, but has the great, complex finish.

If I had to dock it marks, I’d say it certainly needs coaching with water or time to get the maximum out of it, but that’s more a way of life with older drams. I enjoyed this one, and I’ll be hunting down some more like it.

84/100

Scotch review #675, Speyside review #194, Whisky Network reviews #1118