Glen Garioch 1999
Oloroso casks, High Strength Batch No.30, Bottled 2013 | 56.3% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Simply glorious - with water!
As the pendulum swings, a challenge emerges
As is the case with every January, three things inevitably come to pass: the turning of the calendar brings more grey hair on my chin, more New Years’ resolutions, and a bombardment of predictions proclaimed by those speaking of the year to come.
With regard to the grey hair; I have embraced my grey many years ago, so no issue with that. Annual resolutions; often fervently declared, are sometimes ambitious but I appreciate the setting of goals and it’s good to set one’s sights beyond the usual horizon. And then we come to the themes and prognostications we are told will come to pass.
As whisky goes, many outlets have boldly made their predictions for the coming year. Many of those dire and foreboding prognostications yield an overlapping venn diagram, suggesting that the year to come will be one of harsh realities and cutting back. The price of bottles will continue to climb due to a combination of an increasingly problematic worldwide economy, as well as unfortunate and deliberate corporate decisions on pricing and a volatile secondary market.
I listen to these predictions from various outlets, and there is a negativity that is breathed in, not unlike second hand smoke. Certainly, there is no desire on anyone’s part to make readers and viewers walk away from this liquid that we all love. But, again, the climate of escalating prices with the backdrop of these repeated prognostications may, and most likely will, convince many to pause or stop their whisky journeys.
I started to realise the impact of this second hand smoke when a buddy in my whisky club recently told me he was going to stop looking for single malts altogether after watching the price hikes on his favourite malts over the past year and then reading a few articles online about 2024 predictions. He told me the joy of bottle hunting was sapped by all of this, and he said he thought about giving up on whisky and moving to tequila.
We had a mini intervention session, and he is a bit better now. He is not a die-hard whisky enthusiast as many of us are. Nonetheless, he has really embraced single and blended malts over the past few years and thoroughly enjoys them. I wonder if his voiced thoughts are not so very far from many others presently on their own whisky journeys.
We can speak of a new whisky loch, a whisky bubble that will burst, an examination of the steady rise of prices that we face. We can analyse and point out the terrible price hikes of so many whisky labels that leave us scratching our heads and clutching our wallets. We can - and should - ask the questions that Fletcher has recently, and most eloquently posed in his debut Dramface piece: who is going to buy and drink all of this Scotch whisky? How is this all going to play out? Yes, there are concerning trends that are afoot, and there are tough questions to ask. But, as someone who likes to see the glass as half full, I feel it necessary to toss some ballast from this ship that we feel slowly sinking.
Everything changes. Most people don’t seek or embrace change. I get it. But, let’s put this into perspective. It wasn’t all that long ago that whisky was in such disfavour distilleries were shuttered by the dozen and there was a real fear that the industry would completely tank. Approximately 30% of all working whisky distilleries in Scotland stopped production or were mothballed in the 1980s. To drive this home to many whisky enthusiasts; think about the powerhouse that we know as Ardbeg. So many forget that it stopped production in 1981 and only resumed fully in 1997. People also tend to forget that the early 1990s had its own inflation-related economic setbacks at that time. The dynamics are not identical to the present day, but it was not a good time for the whisky landscape.
What we choose to remember, however, is when the pendulum swung in the opposite direction and whisky’s resurgence came to be. We remember and reflect on the time, say 2000 to 2018 of lower prices, a resurgence of distilleries and expressions, and ever-expanding choice of well-crafted single malt whiskies. Halcyon days, for sure. It was lovely. And yet, how could we not expect the pendulum to swing back, once again? We could not have logically thought that the optimal whisky times would remain ad infinitum. As a student of history, this is a recurring pattern. Ups and downs, highs and lows. Pendulums swing back and forth. It is to be expected, though the downturns are certainly not warmly greeted, nor should they be.
As anyone of my generation knows, there is a certain Canadian band whose lyrics always seem to apply so well to life. And, with apologies to Rush, I add some words to the oft-sung phrase:
A whisky drinker may be hopeful, yet discontent,
He knows changes aren’t permanent –
But change is.
While we can wring our hands, as my whisky club pal had done, we also must remember our love of whisky. As for most of us whisky enthusiasts, while we can adapt how we spend our money, we needn’t succumb to doom and gloom. We need not lose the love and passion for the drink we adore.
Our appetites and curiosities for all things whisky remain heightened. Our love of the bottle hunt ought not be extinguished. Our interest to learn about the industry, the labels, the expressions, and all other facets of uisge beatha ought not be any less passionate. We still look to learn, absorb, and ultimately purchase bottles. While there is a more pronounced push and pull between the economy and prices versus our desire to continue our whisky journeys, and while we should not be blind or deaf to the realities around us, I would suggest to us all – as I did to my whisky club pal – that we ought to chalk up this upswing of the pendulum as a challenge.
Whisky should remain a happy place. A welcoming oasis. An intriguing area that still should provide interest for a good bottle hunt. Certainly, unlike the bottle hunts of a few years ago, for the majority of us the hunts of today are done more judiciously, for sure. Whether doing deliberate savings with a greater time in-between hunts, accepting a challenge to not purchase at RRP, or starting to investigate potential bargains in auctions (see Broddy’s helpful article before you do!), we should embrace the new dynamics as a challenge. For me, I still do love a bottle hunt.
And so, the hunt was on again last weekend, while away from North Carolina. It had been a while, and with present realities I intentionally saved my pennies before I went. It was a good day. I went to a few stores, and then back-tracked to the second store I had visited. Two bottles had caught my eye. One was an Old Particular bottling of Mortlach and the other was this “dusty”; this Glen Garioch special release from 1999 and bottled in 2013 - more than a decade ago.
With the new realities being what they are, I could only afford one. I didn’t shake my fist and cuss. I didn’t choose to forego my whisky chase. I know that prices are up, but I will – albeit more deliberately – continue my whisky journey. I recognise the landscape for what it is, and my bottle hunts may be less frequent as I use the added time to save up. But, it doesn’t make the hunt any less enjoyable as I head out with my single malt pickaxe.
So, in that store, how was I to choose between the two bottles? Well, I have a creaky mental file cabinet between my ears. When I saw the Glen Garioch bottle on the shelf, that rusty and creaky file cabinet opened and I started to recall a review from Dougie of an Adelphi bottling of Glen Garioch. His was also an Oloroso cask. Moreover, as I recalled, Dougie’s Adelphi was roughly the same age as the bottle in my hand. I grabbed my cell phone, logged into Dramface’s search engine, and found the review.
That rusty file cabinet is a bit archaic and needs some oil, but it did itself proud, and I grabbed the bottle. Yes, pricey, but I had saved up, I was going to maintain my enthusiasm, I was going to treat myself.
Review
Glen Garioch 1999, High Strength Batch No.30, bottled 2013, oloroso casks, 56.3% ABV
US$105 (£82) paid January 2024.
I returned home with the bottle and it sat on the shelf for the following week. Each day at work, my mind would invariably wander back to this bottle and wonder if my Glen Garioch would be somewhat comparable to the experience Dougie had almost a year ago.
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Simply glorious - with water!
Nose
Bold. Initial hit is marzipan and stewed plums. Quickly, however, the alcohol burn hits, sits down, and pulls up a chair. That blast of alcohol lasts throughout the nosing experience. Trying to discern and parse the flavours through the alcohol blowtorch, I find molasses, sharp ginger, strawberry jam, and rum soaked raisins. Some orange pith is lingering about. Flavours are there, but this is tough.
Adding the better part of a teaspoon of water to my dram, we have an amazing transformation. The alcohol onslaught is gone. A beautiful nose. Dates and ripe dark fruits. Clotted cream and raisin scones. Rich and fruity sherry. Spices are here aplenty, featuring ginger and nutmeg with a hint of cinnamon. Orange marmalade on pancakes. There is a cereal and herbal note (jasmine tea?) faintly in the background. Overall, this is rich, layered, and lovely.
Palate
Without water, that alcohol comes in with a billy club to take out your sinuses. It won’t back down. Again, an uncomfortable struggle to see beyond the bully with the club. Behind him there is ginger, sweet grapes and plums. A bit of a bitter note with toffee. A sweeter cereal note tries to come forth, but each time I search for something, I get an alcohol shillelagh in the kneecaps.
After I deliver a healthy dose of water, the bully has moved on to threaten someone else down the block. Without this alcohol presence, and the water helping things open up, this is an amazingly delicious dram. The water has brought forth magic. Dark ripe stone fruits mingle with that orange marmalade. Dates and raisins. Date pinwheel cookies. The clotted cream and raisin scones are here. Pipe tobacco and oiled leather. Dark chocolate. Apple butter on a croissant. Ripe plums. A hint of butterscotch and malty waffles. One of the best drams I have had in a long while.
The Dregs
I am glad I have not forsaken the whisky bottle hunt. Yes, the dollars, pounds or euros do not go nearly as far as they used to. But, with patience, saving pennies, and being a bit more discerning, we can mine these jewels from the ashes of the present whisky market.
This Glen Garioch, with water added, is glorious. Simply glorious. This non chill filtered liquid is full bodied and loaded with flavour. I wish there was more information about the liquid in my bottle, as the label and box have limited data. To the extent that I gleaned more information from digging online.
This is bottled at “high strength” as opposed to cask strength. Not sure what the exact definition of “high strength” is. How much dilution will still allow a whisky to qualify as “high strength”? It is an interesting nomenclature. For sure, the 56.3% ABV is no joke, and even at 48%-50% (to which I believe I brought my dram down to) this is a full-bodied experience.
I also read that Glen Garioch uses a relatively short fermentation time for its whiskies; 50 hours as I understand it. That short fermentation is supposed to provide a cereal and spice note in the distillate, along with a full bodied (one website called it waxy) mouthfeel with honeyed fruits and heather. I certainly taste the cereal/malt and spice, but while this is full bodied, I cannot say it’s waxy.
After I did my nosing and tasting notes over several days, I went back to that article from Dougie. While I was in the store pondering which bottle to purchase, I didn’t read his nosing and tasting notes. His was an 11yo Adelphi bottling, oloroso sherry cask matured, distilled in 2011 and bottled in 2023. The Glen Garioch I had in my hand was 14yo, distilled in 1999 and bottled in 2013, but also matured in Oloroso sherry casks. Seeing the 9/10 score from Dougie sealed the deal. In reading his Dramface reviews, and sampling similar expressions, I believe my palate is somewhat similar (let’s not get into a debate about Bladnoch!) to his.
Now that I have gone back to fully re-read his review after finishing my tasting notes, I see a good amount of overlap from his bottle to mine. Dougie does such amazing work putting into words that which he experiences on the nose and on the palate. It’s always great to read a Dougie review, with those great descriptors, and unpack his sensory experiences. Among his tasting notes, he speaks in his review of his Glen Garioch of “buttery shortbread”, “pancakes with maple syrup and blueberries along a side of whipped cream” and “sweet tea”. I was rather amused and, frankly, chuffed that in my notes, I had similar notes – pancakes, clotted cream and scones, as well as a jasmine tea note. His bottle did sound remarkably similar in specs to mine, and it would have been lovely to do a side-by-side tasting. I am tremendously glad I opened that creaky mental filing cabinet and found Dougie’s review as it prompted me to purchase the bottle in front of me.
Even in these otherwise darkening whisky times, there are lights about. Bright lights. My Glen Garioch is a great case in point. This is a bottle that I had not seen previously. It is a dusty – something that has lingered on a shelf or sat in a back warehouse for many years, without explanation. If I allowed the general negativity to dampen my desire to investigate and go on bottle hunts, I wouldn’t have found this. If I had not understood the lay of the land and adjusted my saving habits, I may not have been able to afford this bottle. All those things aside, I keep the whisky positivity going and hope the bottle hunts are still going to yield magnificent finds.
My whisky curiosity remains at full throttle. Circumstances have changed and the means by which that curiosity manifests itself is different than it had been, but as I told my whisky club pal who was starting to despair, change will happen and it is time to embrace the challenge. It is easy to breathe in the negative, but for us whisky enthusiasts, we can adapt and still love the journey we have embarked upon.
Changes aren’t permanent, but whisky is.
Catch the mist
Catch the myth
Catch the mystery
Catch the drift
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. OS
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