A couple of months (or years?) ago, Diageo dumped some of its premium whisky stock on the market. Suddenly € 600 bottles were available for € 200. One of them was this Glen Ord 30 years old, a limited release from the Black Isle distillery.

Glen Ord 30 yo
(58,7%, OB 2005, 6000 btl.)

Nose: starts malty and grassy (hay, dried flowers). Geraniums? Furniture polish and freshly treated sandalwood. Some peaches on syrup. A little wax (scented candles) and mint syrup. Herbal accents. It takes some time to discover this nose. It’s complex and full of character, but it fails to convince me completely. Mouth: starts spicy (pepper) and fresh with some cereal notes and a faint aromatic (slightly soapy) edge. Herbal honey. Malt. Ginger. Orange, grapefruit and apple compote. Quite some oak as well, but nicely integrated and not tannic. Finish: oaky, gingery with hints of grapefruit and liquorice.

Still available for around € 150 in some shops. By no means a bad whisky, and a very good deal at this price, but too rough to be a real cracker in my opinion.

Score: 88/100