Even after almost eight years, I can count the number of Glenesk reviews on one hand, yet Cooper’s Choice had a 31 year-old distilled in 1984 as this year’s bottling to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Limburg Whisky Fair. In fact this bottler released multiple 1984 casks in the last few months, some bourbon, some sherry.
Glen Esk 31 yo 1984 (49,5%, Cooper’s Choice for Limburg Whisky Fair 2016, bourbon cask #4677, 240 btl.)
Nose: starting on a basket of discrete orchard fruits. Yellow apples, peaches and greengages. Hints of honey and barley sugar. Light vanilla, grasses and a touch of yellow flowers too. Maybe not spectacular, but nice enough, and there’s a very nice waxy, oily side which brings it close to the Clynelish profile.
Mouth: more interesting. There’s still this combination of garden fruits (apples, white peach, a little melon) and interesting waxy / paraffin-like notes. Moves towards grassy / resinous notes and tobacco, even lightly peaty notes (or something similar), never loosing sweet citrusy undertones. Nice.
Finish: medium long, slightly bittersweet, always with this Clynelish fruity-grassy touch.
All good, a kind of oldskool fruitiness. It’s mostly this Clynelish-esk je-ne-sais-quoi that I like in this Glenesk. Hands down the best Glenesk I’ve tried, ha! Around € 360.
Score: 88/100