Day 19 - KWM 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar - G&M Glentauchers 2000 KWM Cask
Posted on December 19, 2024
Day 19 - G&M CC Glentauchers 2000 KWM Cask
By Evan
Okay, for this series in our 2024 Not An Advent Calendar have had two older teenage single malts, and one toddler Texas bourbon. Today let's try something a wee bit older. Say hello to the 23-year-old Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice Glentauchers KWM Cask.
Can you believe this 23-year-old Single Malt Scotch was distilled in the year 2000? It can't even be considered a millennial! It is a 23-year-old Gen Z whisky. I feel ancient and decrepit just pondering that.
Luckily, we have two much older things to talk about while we ignore our own approaching best before dates thanks to this whisky: Gordon & MacPhail and Glentauchers Distillery. As mentioned in an earlier post, Gordon & MacPhail started as a grocery store in 1895. Glentauchers distillery is only slightly younger than that.
Glentauchers was founded in 1897 by James Buchanan and W.P. Lowrie, with production starting in 1898. James Buchanan & Co. had taken majority control of the distillery just under a decade later in 1906, and in 1915, that company merged with Dewar's. A few other things happened ownership-wise over the following decades, two world wars and other stuff that made the news at the time. What is important for Glentauchers as it is now is that in 1985, DCL (the owners at that point) mothballed the distillery. That’s right, Glentauchers survived the big distillery cull of 1983 only to get the axe two years later. The distillery was silent until 1992 when it was revived by Allied Distillers. Allied was taken over by Chivas Brothers / Pernod Ricard in 2005.
Pernod Ricard owns the distillery to this day, and in the past few years they have installed new equipment that has enabled it to be carbon-neutral. Production-wise, Glentauchers can be considered mid-sized by Scottish Single Malt Distillery standards. Its ~4 million litres of spirit output annually place it in the top 40 of the 150 or so currently operating malt distilleries in the country.
The Glentauchers Distillery is located in Mulben, which is just west of Keith. It’s nearest distillery neighbours include Auchroisk Distillery, which is a five-minute drive to the west, and if you take a seven-minute drive east to Keith, you will be able to reach Strathmill, Glen Keith, and the very picturesque Strathisla Distillery.
Given its relative output, it is a bit surprising that very few official bottlings of Glentauchers are available – and none currently come to Canada. The distillery’s production is nearly entirely earmarked for blending as it plays a prominent roll in Ballentine's as well as the Buchanan’s and Black & White Blended Scotch Whisky brands.
The style and qualities of Glentauchers Single Malt make it a favourite of blenders. It is also prized by independent bottlers, so luckily, we see a decent amount of small batch and single cask releases of Glentauchers on the regular. The distillery makes a wonderfully rich and fruit-driven whisky that both works on its own and plays well with others. Glentauchers can be found bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, That Boutique-y Whisky Company, Signatory, and many others from time to time, including the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
This specific Glentauchers is a single cask that we at Kensington Wine Market chose, from a selection of samples that were sent to us by Gordon & MacPhail. We actually had two different G&M Glentauchers single casks for a small period of time earlier this year. The 2006 G&M Glentauchers KWM Cask that was matured in a refill ex-Bourbon Barrel is sadly sold out. It was a wonderfully fruity and floral dram wrapped in decadent sweet notes and no small amount of spice, and it shall be missed.
This 23-Year-Old Glentauchers is still available – at least as I write this. It is a rich and decadent dram thanks to its life being spent languoring in a first fill ex-sherry hogshead. It has been bottled at a cask strength of 55.8%.
Ready for a taste?
G&M CC Glentauchers 2000 KWM Cask – 55.8%
Evan’s Tasting Note
Nose: Full of syrupy and toffee laden goodness along with notes of dates, plums, demerara sugar, glazed cinnamon twists donuts, milk chocolate, and fresh out of the oven apple pie.
Palate: Big, rich, and decadent sherry notes with a firm backing of spice. Notes of Mackintosh’s Toffee, roasted hazelnuts, fruit leather, marmalade, strawberry rhubarb crumble, dark chocolate with sea salt, and espresso.
Finish: Lengthy and full of salted caramel, dried fruit, oak spice, and a touch of molasses and bittersweet amaro.
Comment: This is G&M sherry casks at their finest, filled with some of the best Speyside whisky around.
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: dark, fruity, and spicy with deep chocolate tones; white chocolate Hershey's Kisses, chocolate dipped DQ soft serve, and Eatmore; jammy dark berry fruits, candied cherries, Jujubes, and Wine gums; Christmas cake and rich spices: ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Palate: thick (dumpy), dark, and rich with decadent spices; brandy-soaked cherries and Christmas cake soaked in spiced rum; blueberry and blackberry jams, craisins, and damp Jujubes, especially of the black licorice sort; still chocolatey, though more towards Häagen-Dazs than DQ; big sweet spices: ginger, cinnamon, anise and candied fennel; Fruit Source bars, rough new leather, and damp pipe tobacco.
Finish: long, coating, and rich, with loads of spices, bright berry fruits, and licorice candies; fading leather, tobacco, and chocolate.
Comment: this is a braw (excellent), big, and complex sherried malt; it has a profile that can best (and lovingly) be described as dumpy; it has more of a modern sherry profile, but it is textbook!
Could this be even more sherried than the Millstone 25-Year-Old we tasted on Day 4 in this year’s Not An Advent Calendar? I wish I had kept some of that dram back so I could taste them side by side! What will tomorrow bring us?
Cheers,
Evan
Playing catch-up on our 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar?
You can find the rest of the blog posts here!
This entry was posted in Whisky, Tastings, Whisky Calendars, Distillery, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM Single Cask, KWM 2024 Not An Advent Calendar Tastings
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