This 20 years old Glen Garioch 1988 is my first review of a SMWS bottling. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was founded in 1983 in order to promote whisky by bottling casks of nearly every distillery in Scotland. They’re all single casks at cask strength, and every bottling has a unique number (distillery code + bottling number).

19.44 is the 44th cask of Glen Garioch (distillery n°19) by SMWS.

Glen Garioch 20 yo 1988 ‘Old Grandad Whisky’ (53,4%, SMWS 2009, 19.44, 251 btl.)

Nose: sweet start with a winey touch. Rum / raisins. Dried apricots. Strawberries with white chocolate. Vanilla. The ‘old granddad’ should come from notes of tobacco and leather. The hints of pipe tobacco are certainly there but the leather is less detectable. Very nice overall, although there are also some savoury / herbal notes (cup-a-soup powder with whiffs of sweet mustard) that I found a bit distracting. Mouth: candied start, growing surprisingly floral. Lots of flowery notes, in the direction of lavender and geraniums (both of which I don’t like). A bit too close to perfumy notes for my taste. Lots of toffee. Again some tobacco. Finish: rather short with toffee and pine wood.

Quite an unusual dram. Strawberry notes are not very common and the combination with herbal notes is strange but interesting. I was a bit disappointed by the flowery profile on the palate. Around € 90.

Score: 81/100