Mackillop’s Choice Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Mackillop’s Choice Glenlivet 1989 (23 year old) 52.1%

Bourbon Cask  23105/ Dist: Nov 1989 Btl: July 2013/ Tasted: Aug 2013

A beautiful nose of mature honey and tropical; fruit. Stunningly deep with a soupcon of mature oak along with hints of mint, thyme, eucalyptus, smoke and an almost grain-like spiciness. Layers and layers of apricot, melon and luscious honey – Yum!

The palate is saturated with mature honey infused tropical fruit, just like the nose. Multi-layered with the alcohol balancing the honey and imparting a little piquant freshness. The middle displays a lovely combination of earthy spice, eucalyptus, thyme and heather. The mature oak note comes through on the finish. Oooh those sugars and spice notes linger as does a thread of smoke and a little non-bitter dark chocolate. What as stunning old dram!

Edinburgh Whisky Ltd Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Edinburgh Whisky Ltd – The Library Collection Glenlivet 2007 (8 year old) 46%

First Fill Sherry Butt (?)/ Dist: Mar 2007 Btl: Jun 2015/ Tasted: Oct 2015

A wonderfully soft and estery with pineapple, melon, banana, peach, pear and perfumed/ fragrant barley. Very exuberant and maybe just a touch OTT but some taught citrus and a very subtle minerality adds a little counterpoint to the tropical fruit.

The palate is soft, milky and barley’d. Surprisingly it feels a little watery and underpowered but its stuffed full of the same estery, tropical fruit tones that the nose displays. A little more herbal and tartly citric on the middle, so the palate is not quite as vivacious as the nose suggests. Long and herbal with lingering barley, light honey and perfumed fruit. Maybe it’s become a little too perfumed? In conclusion: A wonderful fruit bomb of a malt but it’s just a bit too perfumed to want more than one dram of this at a time.

Hunter Laing Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Hunter Laing Old Malt Cask Glenlivet 2001 (10 year old) 50%

Sherry/ Code: OMC2253/ Dist:Sept 2001 Btl: May 2013/ Tasted: June 2013

A distinctly first fill Oloroso nose! Very leafy and herbal with hints of sage, camphor, light herbal coffee and more herbs! Lightly balsamic and dunnagey with some luscious orange and dried fruit. 

The palate opens with dried grape and sultanas with coffee and dark chocolate. A very minor sulphur blemish is evident unfortunately. Nutty an lightly floral with some barley and balsamic notes. Quite a smoky finish with duty spices and wood tannins.

Douglas McGibbon Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Douglas McGibbon Provenance Glenlivet 2001 (11 year old) 46%

Sherry Butt/ Code: PRV0989/ DMG9638

Dist: Sept 2001 Btl: Apr 2013/ Tasted: May 2013

Aromas of nutty sherry with hints of baked fruit and balsamic notes. Pleasantly spiced with a touch of rich, sherried dried fruit.

The palate is full and sherried, again quite nutty with prune, raisin, malt and a touch of balsamic baked fruit. Good length with a liquorice, treacle and herbal finish.

Scott’s Selection Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Scott’s Selection Glenlivet 1980 (31 year old) 45.5

Bourbon/ Dist: 1980 Btl: 2011/ Tasted: July 2011

Quite pungent with an almost peaty nuance. Well endowed in the white liquorice department with hints of white root vegetables! With time the granity hardness becomes more apparent as does the barest hint of some honey. Very intriguing!

Soft, gentle, full and rounded on the palate. Subtly fruity and like the nose quite granity. A little bit on the simple side but a great depth however. A good length with the granity character lingering. In conclusion: A seriously intriguing nose and a subtle palate. Very Highland-esque

Wilson & Morgan Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Wilson & Morgan Barrel Selection Glenlivet 1975 (31 year old) 46%

Sherry Cask 10850/ Dist: 1975 Btl: 2006/ Tasted: Sept 2007

Rich and slightly vegetal aromas of green nuts, coffee, hickory and honied mature orange fruit. Only gripe is that it is a bit raw and edgy.

The palate is rich with Cognac-esque dried fruit mingle with cinnamon, orange fruit and spices. Like the nose it’s a bit raw and edgy. Great length with the intense dried fruit flavours lingering. It definitely belies its age. A bit on the raw side and for me just lacks subtlety. But I’m sure it will appeal to sherry lovers

Queen of the Moorlands Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask ‘The Chairman’s Bottling’ Glenlivet 30 year old 54%

Sherry/ Tasted: Oct 2006

A rich, oily and sherried nose, just this side of vegetal. There is plenty of Cognac-esque dried fruit, orange liqor, soft spices and coffee. The palate is much like the nose, rich and densly sherried with hints of gingerbread and soft spices. Pretty intense stuff with lots of wood notes and tannins on the finish.

Water mutes the intensity of the nose, but emphasises the orange fruit, whilst on the palate it becomes very pleasantly honeyed with a floral finish.

Murray McDavid Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Murray McDavid ‘Mission Series V’ Glenlivet 1974 (31 year old) 46%

Bourbon/ Dist: 1974 Btl: 2005/ Tasted; Nov 2005

Clean, crisp and slightly estery with light cream and vanilla giving way to the ripest summer berries and barley sugar followed by hints of lemon and lime and an enticing spicy perfumed note, then it is back to the heavier almond, coconut and vanilla notes.

Dry, medium bodied, very elegant with a complex intensity of vanilla, soft fruit, spices, coconut and almonds. The spice builds on the middle and fades leaving a soft barley sugar finish with a crisp salty freshness. All the time you are aware of the background of quality American oak. Stunning balance, gentle and very, very complex.

Murray McDavid ‘Celtic Heartlands’ Glenlivet 1977 (33 year old) 47.7%

Bourbon/ Yquem

Dist: 1977 Btl: 2010 /Tasted: Dec 2010

A huge, rich, tropical nose of banana, apricot, tangerine, kumquat and kiwi. Sublimely balanced with hints of sawdusty vanilla oak and a background of toffee sweetness. One could sniff this all day, it really is a stunning old dram, dripping in natural honey and with just a mere hint of the finishing cask.

The palate mirrors the nose. It is resplendent in its mature tropical fruit and sawdusty oak. The piquant-ish alcohol nips and cleans as the mouth watering fruit and toffee sweetness moves in. Exceedingly long and generous with the tropical fruit returning with a lovely honey/ malty glaze, or maybe it never left!?! Oooh the finish goes on and on and on!! A simply stunning old Glenlivet, which is worth every penny.

Murray McDavid ‘Celtic Heartlands Edition II’ Glenlivet 1968 (36 year old) 41.2%

Bourbon Oak/ Dist: 1968 Btl: 2004/ Tasted: Sept 2004

A clean, toasty, biscuity nose with soft delicate aromas of marzipan, peach and pear. Followed by lots and lots of toasty creamy fudge aromas, with hints of angelica, sherry and salt.

The palate was soft and clean with layer upon layer of sweet toasted cereal, apricot fruit, intermingled with angelica, toffee and citrus fruits. A very tangy, almost floral finish, which seems to linger endlessly.

James MacArthur Glenlivet Tasting Notes

James MacArthur ‘Old Masters Cask Strength Selection’ Glenlivet 1996 (12 year old) 57.8%

Sherry Cask 906680/ ist: 1997 Btl: 2008/ Tasted: Dec 2006

Quite an aromatic nose. Full of delightfully floral orange fruit and liquid honey. It seems more mature than 12 years old. Those honeyed aromas deepen wonderfully and hints of citrus, apricot, straw, earth, coffee and wood spices emerge. Over time it develops a gorgeous floral/ creamy butter-toffee oak note.

On the palate it is soft and full of liquid honey, straw, orange/ apricot fruit and lots of alcohol. Good length with hints of grass/ citrus and a late spice burst.

A drop of water emphasises the creamy vanilla and coffee aromas, whilst on the palate it becomes gorgeously mouth filling and juicy. A damn fine cask! I was actually quiet surprised to find out that this was a sherry cask as the wood influence is very minimal.

James MacArthur ‘Old Masters Special Reserve’ Glenlivet 1977 (28 year old) 53.6%

Bourbon Cask 19753/ Dist: 1977 Btl: 2006/ Tasted: Dec 2006

Very floral on the nose, quiet oily, deep and complex with mature orange fruit, delicate spice, liquorice, beeswax all wrapped in a blanket of luxurious honey. I could sniff this all day!

On the palate it is soft and quiet nutty with smooth, delicate fruit, wood tannins, spice, liquorice and a late touch of mature honey. Very long with a floral note in the finish and a touch of peat. There really is no need for any water, but if you do add some it emphasises its floral character on the nose and brings it all together in one harmonious smoothness on the palate.

James MacArthur ‘Old Masters Special Reserve’ Glenlivet 1977 (30 year old) 57.6%

Bourbon Cask 19754

Dist: Nov 1977 Btl: Sept 2008/ Tasted: July 2009

Light, earthy aromas of honey coated apricot fruit, spice and bark. Over time the spices become increasingly dusty. Very impressive depth. Lovely age and complexity. It develops a violet/ floral note and the vanilla become delightfully buttery. Water emphasises the herbal honey and crumbly spices. Yum!

The palate is oily, dry and light with some honeyed fruit and earthy spices. Alcohol dominates and it’s not as complex as the nose suggests. Water brings out the lush honey coated barley and the oily citrus fruit. Wonderfully soft and mouth filling. Long, but a bit hot. Water softens and mellows. Showing its age with the herbal honey running to the end. In conclusion – Great nose, really expressive. The palate is not so complex. It still quite good though.

Hart Brothers Glenlivet Tasting Notes

Hart Brothers ‘Finest Collection’ Glenlivet 1968 (34 year old) 50.6%

Bourbon/ Dist: Oct 1968 Btl: Jan 2003/ Tasted: Nov 2009

A nose heavy on the mature wood/ sawdust notes which takes awhile to allow anything else through but when it does there is some lovely orange conserve fruit, mature honey and a granite note. Over time it becomes more herbal with a violety perfume.

The palate is quite like the nose starting off quite woody and earthy with a touch of hessian and tannin. The liquid orangearrives with a crisp almost saline intensity and a very salty mid palate ensues along with some spicy wood notes and some pure Madagascan vanilla pod, leather and a slight crème caramel note. Quite woody but well balanced.

Water brings out a lovely sweetness to the fruit along with some coffee notes and emphasising the perfume and spice. However it does shorten the palate however.