Glenturret 10 2005 Adelphi [Mystery]

Thanks to /u/throzen for pouring me this dram.

Not just that. You see, this was poured as a mystery. A mystery that would confound each and every person at the tasting.

Now if you haven’t been following my previous reviews, you’ll not know that I’m utter crap at guessing mysteries. I get mixed up, I don’t remember distillery profiles, and I’m not good at it. At the tasting, there were much, much better tasters than I.

And no word of a lie, most of them guessed this upon seeing the whisky in the Glencairn.

Why? Because throzen, who is probably one of the smartest self-taught people I know, had been going on about Glenturret non-stop for about two years after looking it up himself. So when he poured Glenturret 10 2005 Adelphi, most saw the colour and knew it immediately.

For me, it took nosing it. So it’s not really fair to say I figured this out, right off the bat, because he’s the distilleries biggest fan (outside Japan). And I do feel bad that we ruined his surprise.

The whisky is big in Japan, and even featured in a manga, which I’m told is like a comic but smarter.

So let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Highland

Distilled: 2005

Bottled: 2015

Cask Type: Sherry Cask

Cask # 95

Outturn: 438 bottles

Abv: 57.6%

Colour: 10YR 4/6

Nose: Strawberry, peach, raisin/brown sugar, melon, brine

There’s this immediate combination of local fruit mixed with tropical. That’s the only way I can explain my initial guess of the whisky upon nosing it.

Granted upon thinking back, melon isn’t tropical, is it? This is why I didn’t do well in science class. Suffice to say there’s a lot of fruit going on here. A wicked ton of it, if you will.

Taste: Oak, strawberry, coconut, caramel

Strawberry is the queen of the castle here. It’s quite hard to get past it, if at all. The initial oak works with it, though I got a bit tired of having a very-close-to one note Scotch after a few sips.

Finish: Char, lime, basil, coconut, mint, raisin

Ah, here we go, some difference with the char. Granted it corrects to a herbal/tropical fruit mashup, but the finish is certainly better than the taste.

Conclusion: I don’t hate this, I just don’t really enjoy it. It’s hitting the same note over and over on the taste, the nose is very “This is a Sherried Glenturret” and the interesting part is the finish.

If you’re a big sherry whisky fan, then you’re buying this. Easily. It’s doing the fruity thing quite well. It’s nice to have that mix of tropical and local fruit salad-thing and overall that’s nice. But I think, based on a certain hypeman and other things I’ve read myself, there’s more to be had from this distillery, and I look forward to trying them in the future.

79/100

Guess: Glenturret, Independently bottled, ex-Sherry, cask strength

Actually: Glenturret 10 2005 Adelphi

Scotch review #1069, Highland review #180, Whisky review #1666