Glen Spey 27 1986 A.D. Rattray Cask Collection

So here we are. Onto Day 11 of my Advent Calendar, done in December on a one-per-day process, and then… Well, you get the rest, it’s posted eventually.

Granted being sick and having some writer’s block this past month hasn’t helped things.

But we’re onto fun things! It’s all looking up, at least until class starts again for me. Let’s see what day 11 brings, shall we?

Price: No longer available

Region: Speyside

Distilled: September 9th, 1986

Bottled: January 20th, 2014

Age: 27-years-old

Cask Type: Ex-bourbon hogshead

Cask Number: 1982

Number of bottles: 224

Abv: 52.5%

Colour: 2.5Y 8/8

Nose: Banana, grassy, cookies, banoffee

Initial Banana immediately makes me think it’s Speyside or Highland. Some grassiness, some nice cookie notes, and a bit of water adds some toffee to the banana.

It kinda works. On the one side, you have a very sweet nose and the grass is trying to balance it, but it’s not quite doing it.

Taste: Chocolate, ginger, raspberry, grassy, caramel

Remember when Austin Powers is taking pictures and he’s going yes, yes and then yells No? Well, that’s the taste. Chocolate? Great. Ginger. Works well there. Raspberry? Fine enough. Grass? NO!

Water doesn’t change that. The raw aspects take away from making it a cohesive whole, like it needs to cook for longer.

Finish: Chocolate, green banana, grass, honey/cereal, coffee

Long finish. This is where I start to think it’s older than I gave it credit, however unlike previous drams, going back over it again and again just gets me more of the pretty standard Highland notes (even though it turns out it was a Speyside).

And again it has some of those raw, not quite ready flavours that knock you out of it.

Conclusion: All over the place, interesting but ultimately the flaws are too many. Chocolate and ginger is fun and tasty. The banana backbone mixed with the chocolate aspects should be the start of what grows into something bigger.

Alas, no. Raw aspects shunt their way to the tasting notes and stop a cohesive whole, like that one coworker we all hate working with. You know the one.

82/100

Guess: Highland, 52%, Ex-bourbon cask, 14-17 years

Actually: Glen Spey 27 1986 A.D. Rattray

So this is the first second ever Glen Spey I’ve had. I originally picked up this sample because I thought it was a Birthday Dram, but the cask number just happened to by my birth year. Overall it’s tasting a lot younger than it denotes, with the extra age just adding to the finish.

I get the feeling they finally gave up on this. It just kept sitting in the cask, not really working out, and after 27 years it wasn’t going to give a blend anyone big flavour, and (I assume and hope) it wasn’t consistent enough to be released by itself. This is an interesting dram, but overall I think the Cask Collection has some better drams in there that’ll make you happier.

Scotch review #1071, Speyside review #296, Whisky review #1668