Glenturret, beside being the spiritual home of Famous Grouse, is known for mashing its grist by hand and for having some of the longest fermentation times, over 100 hours.
The distillery has only one official bottling, a 10 years old (which used to be a 12 years old). Now they’ve worked with Hunter Laing to create a kind of semi-official “licensed bottling”. It’s a Glenturret 1986, 26 years old and bottled entirely from bourbon casks, selected by Master Distiller Gordon Motion.
The Glenturret 26 yo 1986
(46,8%, Hunter Laing 2013, refill bourbon casks, 2400 btl.)
Nose: in line with what we saw from 1977 casks. Bright and fruity at first, green apples and pineapple, maybe green banana. Citrussy notes (kumquat), moving towards blossomy and grassy notes. Honey and soft toffee. A bit of polished wood and hay. Hints of tobacco and popcorn.
Mouth: again fruity, with apples and crystallized oranges. Vanilla. Plenty of waxy notes again. Yellow raisins. Some salted toffee, herbal / grassy notes and liquorice. Mint and eucalyptus. Ginger. Slightly fizzy but there’s also a warmer, nutty background.
Finish: medium long, with lemons, ginger and a bit of oak.
Based on this you would think Glenturrent is clean and fresh, but it’s not always the case. A pleasant dram in any case, and a big first step towards older official bottlings perhaps? Around € 300.
Score: 89/100