Glen Garioch ‘Glaring Echo’ (Daily Dram)

Ruben — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:00:39 +0000

The latest bottling by Daily Dram is this 18 years old Glen Garioch. The distillery is currently in the news for the rebranding of their range (after Auchentoshan and Bowmore – part of the same group – did the same).

Glen Garioch ‘Glaring Echo’ 18yo 1991
(46%, Daily Dram 2009)

Nose: starts on apple cider and lemon balm. Orange peel. Hints of eucalyptus and a few resinous notes. A nice waxiness as well. Very clean and elegant. I like it. Mouth: soft, velvety delivery but growing stronger over time. Lots of apples again with some liquorice. Quite peppery. Slightly spirity but that’s okay. Nice oak. Some spearmint. Finish: long – the pepper keeps going. Getting drier with a faint grassiness in the end.

A good Glen Garioch with a nice highland style. A rather modern product: absolutely no flaws but maybe not the most unique either. Around € 80.

Score: 85/100

Glen Garioch 20yo 1988 (SMWS 19.44)

Ruben — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:00:23 +0000

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

WhiskyNotes » Glen Garioch

Glen Garioch ‘Glaring Echo’ (Daily Dram)

Glen Garioch ‘Glaring Echo’ 18yo 1991 (46%, Daily Dram 2009)

Glen Garioch 20yo 1988 (SMWS 19.44)

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

Glen Garioch ‘Glaring Echo’ 18yo 1991
(46%, Daily Dram 2009)