Back when I was in SMWS (and won’t get into the rant why I left here), there was this random release of a Glenlossie.
That wasn’t the first Glenlossie, and it wouldn’t be the last. Since then I’ve been lucky to have a handful more, and I’m starting to wonder about that SMWS, and then go over some old reviews.
Part of the reason I review is because I’m trying to figure out what I love. I don’t think enough people self-assess themselves. Sure, we self-criticize ourselves into a crater the size of Siberia; but we don’t take a moment to ask: What do we like? What do we love?
As part of this review I jumped back to look at Glenlossie, and I seem to enjoy them quite a bit. That said I haven’t dived down OBs… wait.
INSERT INTENSE GOOGLING MUSIC USED FOR HACKING SCENES
There aren’t any. So I have only IBs to choose from. Oh woah is me.
Today we’ll be exploring Glenlossie 35 1975 The Whisky Agency, an older release from 2011 of a 35-year-old ex-Bourbon single cask release. Cask strength, subtle, ex-bourbon? Easy sign up. Let’s see if it’s worth my own hype, shall we?
Price: € 680.00
Region: Speyside
Vintage: 1975
Bottled: 2011
Cask type: Ex-bourbon hogshead
Number of bottles: 212
Abv: 52%
Colour: 5Y 8/8
Nose: Passionfruit, papaya, vanilla, yellow plum, fruit hard candy, spice cake
Tropical. Very, very, super tropical. I know yellow plums are local, but everything is on fire because of climate change anyway, so it’s all tropical. Or under water. Or on fire. Or eventually all three.
Sweet. The vanilla and some of the spices and acidic notes attempt to balance, and the fact that it’s very gentle means it’s working, but you’re going to get a lot of sweets.
Taste: Honeycomb, peach skin, cocoa, leather, grassy, mineral
Fruit, sweets, and then that lovely taste of leather you get from those amazing casks we just don’t get anymore. Or we do and it ends up in a whisky that costs more than a Miata and gets you slightly less respect.
Interesting grassy/honey notes here. There’s these subtle earthy/sweet notes and a good amount of bitter elements to balance it better than the nose.
Finish: Orange, sand, green apple, anise/grassy, oak, papaya, char
So we take a look at the nose and the taste and we see interesting, unique, well brought up elements. And now we get to the end and it falls down a bit. And like the incels who feel that movie was a teachable moment (spoilers: it wasn’t in the way you think), it’s not working as well as others.
Tropical, acidic, woody, and some char. It’s now on the other side of the sweet/bitter notes
Conclusion: Gentle and subtle whisky. If you’re going into this, shocked by the age or the vintage, and try it thinking it’s going to be loud and in charge, then it’s not that. It doesn’t taste the abv., and with time/water it stays just as subtle and creeping up on you.
I feel like this is what Balvenie works so hard to be, and yet this single cask stumbled upon it. Yes, there are obvious hiccups here: The finish doesn’t really fit in the level of complexity. The nose seems to have more sugar and the finish seems more bitter than it needs to be.
But damn did I love drinking this. Perhaps it’s that leather note, or the honey notes, or even the whole thing as a package. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m out looking for another Glenlossie.
85/100
Scotch review #1403, Speyside review #393, Whisky Network review #2080
tomoderawhisky.ca 