Glentauchers 1997
Signatory Vintage Cask Strength Series | 48.9% ABV
As I began to write this, I was suffering from a little alcohol fatigue.
I had just attended a wine dinner the night before. Not just any wine dinner, but a wine dinner with a blind tasting, hosted by my father. Rest assured, as you are reading this though, it’s weeks later, such is the slow pace of my writing, and I’m back to 100%.
If I am a whisky enthusiast, my father is a true wine connoisseur, and this wine dinner was not an isolated dinner, it was a series of wine dinners held once every two months since 2008, with rotating hosts among his wine-loving friends. As far as I know, not every one of these gatherings featured a blind tasting, but according to the opening speech he made before the dinner, this was the 100th edition of the series, so he decided that something special should be done, and he made an effort to put together a blind tasting.
As we took our seats, we were treated to two glasses of champagne. A warm-up game was played: discuss what we think of the champagne, and see if we can come up with a consensus on which champagne was of the older vintage. Because my father is a cheeky man when he liked to quiz people, he led with a further question, how many years apart do we think the vintages are?
It turns out the two champagnes were of the same vintage, but disgorged more than a decade apart. I told you he was cheeky. (To understand what disgorging champagne means, please divert your questions to our resident wine guru, Ainsley) The wine tasting then began at the same time the dinner was being served.
What were the wines? Six red wines, same vintage, same grape variety, same vineyard, same production method, the only difference? Six different fields.
With extremely minimal knowledge of wine, Mrs. McAtear and I participated anyway, and purely by trying to read my father’s mind, and with some tips given by other attendees, we actually managed to do quite well. But I’m not going to describe the tasting in detail here, I simply wouldn’t know what I’m talking about.
In the end, twenty one of us consumed eleven bottles of wine, which if you are into wine, you’ll probably think it isn’t enough, my father certainly thought so. Instead of preparing a few more bottles of wine, he decided to turn to me. “Feel free to bring any whiskies that are of interest to you.”
Now that’s an interesting task. “whiskies of interest to me” is too broad, if a whisky didn’t interest me, I wouldn’t have brought it in the first place. Immediately coming to mind is the whisky in question today, a 22 year old Glentauchers bottled by Signatory Vintage.
I’ve had it for quite a while now, drank a good chunk of it, fell out of interest with it, and recently engaged with again. I didn’t eventually pick it, and you might already have an inkling as to why, but I’ll come to that a bit later.
There are some whiskies in my ownership that I have bought out of curiosity, but have since outgrown my interest, one example is the Glenlivet 12 Illicit Still, which had been gathering dust on my shelf for a while now, and it’s still got more than a third left in the bottle. Or the 17 year old Glen Garioch Renaissance Chapter 3 which had received a lukewarm review from Broddy, similarly with close to half a bottle sitting there with little to no interest in finishing it anytime soon.
These are not bad whiskies, and I could have used this as an opportunity to bring a couple of these bottles in an attempt to let someone else finish them off for me, but to put it nicely, I wanted to treat my father’s guests to something more interesting, or to put it more honestly, my ego got the better of me. Instead, I treated this as a real life opportunity to bring a couple of “impress your guest” whiskies.
Although primarily wine drinkers, a few from this group love a bold whisky to cap off the night, so I’m looking for attention grabbers with bold flavours. I quickly settled on the first bottle, an Octomore would be a unique experience for most. I had a 10.3 on the go, so I tasted it again, and it was actually better than I remembered it to be, beneath the intense peatiness, the barley flavours reminded me of a fruity beer.
I spent a lot more time picking my second bottle, which I decided should be an unpeated whisky. I could have picked the cask strength Glenallachie 10, a sherry bomb always pleases a crowd, plus there’s a good story to tell in Glenallachie’s recent renaissance under Billy Walker; I could have picked the sauternes cask finished Linkwood that I reviewed here, showing what a sauternes cask could do to a whisky would be interesting to a group of wine drinkers. In the end, I settled with the Glen Scotia Victoriana, because I wanted an elegant example to show that age statements are not a requirement for a good whisky, I also wanted to talk about the story of Campbeltown, how the small town went from the whisky capital of the world with over thirty distilleries to a point in time when only a single distillery remained, and even that one, Springbank, closed its doors in the 1980s.
As the night progressed and the wines were finished, we moved to the whiskies. It turned out that I wasn’t the only one to have brought whisky. One gentleman was recently introduced to antique whiskies, so he brought along a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label and a 17 year old Ballantines, both from the 1980s. Being whiskies of lower ABV, I suggested that we start with those first, while I don’t think they blew anyone’s socks off, they were both elegant easy sippers, two nice transition drams from wine to whisky.
Next, a Macallan Edition 6 was opened. Easily the most eye catching whisky of the night, maybe for different reasons to different people, but it piqued my interest simply because it’s a well presented Macallan, 48.6% ABV, natural colour, and probably most crucially, these Macallan Edition bottles are usually aimed at collectors, not many crack them open for drinking. It’s not bad at all, and I’m once again reminded that Macallan is capable of making good whisky, when they do try, it’s just too expensive; way way way too expensive.
At this point, after the wines and three whiskies in, voices raised, laughter shared and my bottles of Glen Scotia and Octomore were left on the table untouched, and I thought they would remain so, until someone nonchalantly picked up the Octomore, and poured himself a healthy dram. I didn’t even have time to “warn” him that it’s a 61.3% super peat bomb, and maybe he should try the Glen Scotia first.
As expected, a sip of the dram immediately caught his attention, as he stopped talking, contemplated what he had just experienced, and passed the bottle around, “you guys have to try this, this is good stuff”, and the Octomore was introduced to the group, grabbing the attention of everyone.
The conversation immediately shifted to the whisky, and eventually, to me, allowing me to talk about whisky, about Islay, about peat, about Bruichladdich, and to introduce the Glen Scotia as well. The consensus was “this is good too, but not as impressive as the Octomore”, of course, the peat has taken over their palates, and the elegance of the Victoriana was perceived as soft and limp(!).
This was the point where I was very glad that I didn’t bring the Glentauchers. I’d like to think that I’m fairly generous when it comes to sharing whisky, but knowing the audience is part of the art of whisky sharing. For an audience that are not primarily whisky drinkers, I assumed that they would prefer bolder flavours in whisky, either through peat or heavier cask influence. The Octomore achieved that nicely, and it’s a shame that they couldn’t appreciate the Glen Scotia Victoriana at its best. If this bottle of Glentauchers was brought to the table, its delicate flavours would probably be buried in a lineup of bold whiskies.
Review
Glentauchers 22yo, Signatory Vintage Cask Strength Series, 1997, Casks 4159 + 4164, 48.9% ABV
£148 paid
Nose
Immediately very creamy, with somewhat of a menthol note, and honeyed lemon drizzles. Quite floral as well, a bit of chrysanthemum and rose, and even a hint of leather. I’m also getting a rich and thick banana cake, a very specific type of packaged banana cake from Japan which is often purchased as souvenirs.
Palate
Cream soda on the arrival, the slight fizziness combined with the creamy sweetness and gloopy mouthfeel remind me of “dark” cream soda, which is then followed by a fruit explosion, assortment of melons, melons, honeydew melons, hami melons, other fruits are also present, lemons, pears, pineapples, and perhaps a hint of passion fruits as well. It turns into something like a vanilla custard in the development, although not a very creamy type, with a healthy dose of white sugar. A rich, but not overly sweet honey forms the backbone of the dram. The finish is fairly long, with the honey being in the middle of it. The banana cake from the nose is nowhere to be found on the palate, but still, lovely stuff.
The Dregs
This whisky was a bit astringent on the nose when I first opened the bottle, and indeed when I first poured this glass too, but as I’ve been working down the bottle, and working through the dram every time, it opens up into a very impressive combination of honey, floral and fruity ensemble. On the palate though, it’s been rich from the get go. Again, a style of whisky that I tend to chase, well aged ex-bourbon matured unpeated whisky, it’s spirit forward, yet still showing that maturity, so elegant.
I’ve got to give Signatory a shout out as well. In recent years they have streamlined their core offering, gotten rid of the 43% stuff from yesteryear, and the contemporary expressions have simply been faultless, no wonder they have the OSWAs Trifecta award in the bag for best independent bottler and continually top the People’s Choice. And then when we thought it couldn’t get any better, they’ve recently come out with the 100º proof series, excellent whiskies made better by very affordable prices.
Some suggest that the prices of the series are undercutting their own unchill-filtered series, and while that may be true, I’m not complaining, all I see are more accessible whiskies at affordable prices. The really top stuff is found in the cask strength series though, impressive liquid to go with the impressive decanter style bottle.
Finally, Glentauchers. Another much loved distillery whose whiskies we can only try through independents, however where I am, I don’t see as much of it as a lot of Diageo distilleries, I suspect it’s the same globally. I assume a lot of it goes into Chivas Brothers blends, which, if true, at least secures the demand for the distillery’s output. The distillery only demanded my attention recently, but after a few bottles of various ages and cask types, I’m tempted to give it a vote in the Dramface Top 40.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. MMc