The Virgin oak phenomena is growing like an epidemic, and it seems that every single distillery is jumping on the bandwagon. Not that there is something bad with using Virgin Oak (scots never used them really as they are more expensive than ex-something casks, i think) if your whisky turns out lovely. The good thing about using Virgin oak from the distillery perspective,I guess, is that it’s possible to release fairly young NAS. Having said that, I quite like this whisky… It’s quite limited (sort of) : Just 120 cases of the limited edition have been released for the UK market.
The PR goes like that : “We used the inner heartwood of 100-year-old oak trees grown in the North American mountains. Each oak barrel was heavily charred to activate the wood’s vanilla and oak spices in readiness for the maturing spirit, bringing its own unique woody tones to the malt.”The final result is a fusion of vanilla, caramelised wood sugars and oak spices – a match made in heaven and a stand out for malt enthusiasts.” Let’s see how rich and sweet this one is :
Glen Garioch Virgina Oak , NAS , 48% , £71
Nose: Sweet. Very sweet. Tons of vanilla and sugar with sweet candied oak and a hint of glue. Vanilla ice cream with candied almonds.
Palate: sweet and spiced vanilla. Cloves. Cocoa. Nice wood spices without being over woody.
Finish: Drying and bitter with dark chocolate. Touch of espresso and sugared almonds.
This is a delicious whisky, rich and lovely at 48% , but (and it’s a serious but) I find it hard to recommend a NAS which is obviously young at over 70 quid, when you can get amazing whiskies for well under that price. I wish it were some 20 quid cheaper, than I could really see myself buying one.
Glen Garioch was always interesting to me – until now.
70 £ for a NAS?
Last year I bougth Batch #32 at 45 £ – and that 17-yo at CS 53.9%.
Only got one bottle left though….
Yes this price is very high… 🙁