Glenrothes 1975 Limited Release

43% abv

Score:  89.5/100

Ok. Tackling one more ’70s vintage Glenrothes release here.  1975 this time.  These Limited Release expressions are quite delicious as a rule, and this ‘ere is no exception.  Not my favorite, I’ll concede, but a lovely well-made dram nevertheless.

By no means the sherry bomb one might expect in a whisky from this distillery, I can only speculate that this would have been a lovely fiery dram if it had been bottled at cask strength.  To my dying day I will never understand the rationale to bottle an older malt at anything less than natural cask strength.  Stretching your stocks is understandable in terms of profit concerns, but seriously…jack your prices a little and give us this malt at a higher strength, please and thank you.

Anyway…

A fine nose here.  Old and mature latex notes, telling the tale of seasons spent mellowing away in the cask are front and center.  A fantastic fruity melange follows, built of layers of cherry and raspberry, and then an orange tang.  A smooth and creamy vanilla cake-like lightness, not necessarily too far off from notes of crème caramel or toffee pudding as well.

Old latex notes again (not a bad thing!) and faux sour cherry hit the tongue first.  From here the malt kinda bitters a bit.  A pleasant pungent earthiness too.  The nose would have scored it higher, but it kinda hits some sharper bitter notes on the palate that kept me honest in terms of scoring.  Still a great drink though.

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt