I haven’t given up on Glen Elgin yet. Really I’ve given up on very few scotch distilleries, but we can wait until I get to those ones to list them.
Back to the distillery at hand: You don’t hear much about Glen Elgin. They pop up in IBs here and there, otherwise, it’s not a whisky the Jedi would review. Mostly because they are boring and not fun at parties. Seriously, at least the Mormons will still play some board games.
Enter Glen Elgin 20 1995 Adelphi, specifically cask 3220, because of course there’s been multiple 20-year-old Glen Elgin from 1995 and Adelphi.
Adelphi has won me over quite a few times, even though I’ll typically rant about the lack of information they put out (with one exception, a certain blend).
Can Adelphi turn around a distillery I’m still figuring out? Let’s see, shall we?
Price: €142.00
Region: Speyside
Vintage: 1995
Bottled: 2016
Cask Type: Bourbon Cask
Cask number: 3220
Number of bottles: 258
Abv: 51.7%
Colour: 7.5Y 8/6
Nose: Passionfruit, caramel, grass, grains
Tropical fruit and a bit of funk. Nice… but then… Tropical fruit, and a bit of funk. Alright. Then… okay, that’s all I get for the first bit.
Time/water brings sweetness and grain. And nothing else. It’s like me showing up to a party: You get loud funny comments and whisky comments. Nothing else.
Taste: Nerds candy, lime, cocoa, caramel, chestnut
Alright, big candy note and then some lime and rough cocoa, and some nuttiness and more sweet notes and some more sweet notes and have I told you about the sweetness yet?
Holy damn there’s a bunch of sweet notes.
Finish: Very floral, brine, citrus, peanut, grass, plum
Flowers? Fuck, here I’m drinking a sweet dram for sweet people in a sweet factory beside a sweet kickflip and then we’re in flowers and brine? This would be impressive if it wasn’t overpowering and too strong.
Conclusion: Too unbalanced and all over the place. I can see why you’d like this: It comes really close to a crazy kitchen sink whisky. It’s so close to that and then ends up being sweets and more sweets. It’s insane this is ex-bourbon only.
For me, there’s a lack of finesse here, aka like these reviews. It’s cloying, simple, but has some complex notes. I should like this, as a fat human version of Flower from Bambi, but I don’t because it’s wrapped up in a bad time.
Oh well. Maybe next time.
Scotch review #1219, Speyside review #344, Whisky Network review #1868
79/100
tomoderawhisky.ca 