Tasting Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix

There is a saying that goes “If life hands you lemons, Make Lemonade”. this sums up really good what Glenfiddich just did! First the story: The winter of 2009 was really hard, and a lot of snow fell down. On Thursday Jan 7th , in the most remote part of the snow covered distillery, some of  the warehouse roofs collapsed, ripped open by the sheer weight of snow, leaving maturing oak casks of Glenfiddich exposed to the winter sky. After some work done by the distillery men, the casks were all moved to a shelter. The distillery manager however,selected some casks from the damaged warehouse, from different ages (13-30) , different cask types (Sherry, Ex-Bourbon) to create a vatting that is unique. There are only about 10,000 Bottles which are selling like hot buns.

So, How good is it , worth the hype?

Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix, 47.6% ABV,NAS  , £79 (Buy here)

Nose : Apples pears is butter. Malt and honey some vanilla. A cookers delight.
Palate:  Oak , malt honey and some spice. Again quite buttery. Nuts and sugar as well as baked apples.
Finish : malty nutty. Baked apples.

Bottom line:

I am not a huge Glenfiddich fan, and i had high expectations from this bottle, as i heard it was good from more than one person… At first tasting i was a bit disappointed with it, but on second tasting, it appealed to me more, and i really began to enjoy it. It’s not a standard Glenfiddich, and it’s well made. However, the price is a bit steep (even though there are some older casks inside – up to 30 years). The packaging is interesting, and surly would look good on your shelf, that’s for sure. It’s very good, yet not great.

Score : 85/100

Slainte!