In 2010 the Belgian whisky shop TastToe presented six whiskies from the 1960s, bottled under their own label to celebrate a new logo and restyling of the shop:
None of the bottles has a bottling date, nor an age statement, and as there were only 24 bottles of each, it’s safe to assume they were shared casks. While researching this Glenrothes, I stumbled upon a Peerless series from Duncan Taylor. One of their batches has exactly the same whiskies, all bottled at exactly the same strengths, with more details:
- Bowmore 40yo 1968, cask #3824 (42,3%)
- Glenrothes 40yo 1968, cask #13501 (50,2%)
- Glen Demort 42yo 1966, cask #3342 (45,2% – Glenfarclas)
- Tomatin 43yo 1965 , cask #20938 (52,1%)
- Tamdhu 40yo 1968, cask #4103 (40,4%)
- Macduff 40yo 1968, cask #8547 (45,5%)
Remember TastToe is part of the importers The Nectar, who represent Duncan Taylor in our country. No need to dig deeper, right?
Although everyone agreed they were very high quality, they were also very expensive (even for 2010 standards) and most of them remained on the shelves for a couple of years, until they were overtaken by the market and automatically became reasonably priced.
Glenrothes 1968
(50,2%, TastToe +/- 2008, 24 btl.)
Glenrothes 1968Nose: a lot of waxy oak and minty notes, slightly louder than the ripe fruits. Fresh pineapples, apricots and honey. Some volatile bubblegum. Then back to beeswax.
Mouth: excellent fruits again, quite tropical (pineapple, passion fruits, peaches) before it moves towards oak, ginger, mint and all kinds of resinous notes. Very tasty but on the edge of becoming too oaked. Dry cinnamon powder and some sour notes.
Finish: long, the oaky tang fades away and we’re left with warm spices and some fruity sweetness.
Maybe not stellar (I’ve heard the Bowmore and Tomatin were better), but still very good as long as you don’t mind a fair dose of oak. Thank you very much, Gunther.
Score: 88/100