Gordon & MacPhail Glentauchers 1994

43% abv

Score:  91/100

Incredible that a distillery which produces nearly three and a half million litres of spirit a year (and has a capacity even higher than that!) can still languish in relative obscurity.

If the name Glentauchers is unfamiliar to you, don’t sweat it.  It’s unfamiliar to most of us whisky nerds and keeners too.  These bottlings are few and far between.  As rare as hens teeth, in the words of my dear old grampa.  The vast majority of Glentauchers’s output has ended up in blend oblivion, buried in the mass vattings of Teachers and Ballantine’s, according to all I’ve read.  There are, of course, bound to be single malt ‘casualties’ along the way that are used to produce blends, and I don’t begrudge that.  Every now and again, though, I find a bottle like this one that almost makes me wince, wondering how many stellar casks have been relegated to obscurity in the search for consumer-driven widespread palatability.  Sigh.

Enough barely concealed malt snobbery for now.

This Glentauchers is one of the rare Gordon & MacPhail semi-official releases.  Roughly translated as an independent bottling, in reality.  Typical mixed blessings here.  On the one hand, we thank G&M for the depth of their warehouses and the treats they occasionally bottle for us.  On the other, we ‘tsk tsk’ at the neutered bottling strength.  This is another release that would have been well served by being decanted closer to barrel strength.

And for those curious…Glentauchers is a Speyside distillery. 

Nose:  Lemon (and a little orange).  Soft creamy custard.  Cantaloupe and vanilla ice cream.  Clean oak.  Slightly biscuity.  Florals and perfume.  A hint of tropicalia, but more like tropical Mike & Ike’s or something, instead of real fruit.  Fresh wax.  Honey.  A very tangy and ‘alive’ nose.

Palate:  Tangy fruits up front now, seeming a little more real on the palate than the nose.  Creamy arrival.  Very dessert-like.  Lush and broad on flavour.  A little cinnamon and vanilla sprinked over grilled pineapple.  Lightly toasted oak.  Orange zest.

Thoughts:  Really, really great nose.  Uber clean and vibrant.  This seems like what the Auchentoshan Valinch could be if was allowed to grow up.

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt