Scotch Whisky Review #153: SMWS 2.112 “A lilting experience” Glenlivet 11 Year

Distillery: Glenlivet

Region: Speyside

Price: Sample courtesy of /u/matt5784!

Cask Type: Refill

ABV: 60.2% Cask Strength

Age: 11 Year

Color: 0.5, Yellow Gold. Non-Chill Filtered and Natural Color.

Nose: Light and fruity. Pears and white grapes dominate the nose. Along with the fruits is a bit of licorice.

Palate: As you can expect from something this strong, it packs heat. It’s hot and desperately needs to be watered down. Where the nose was light and fruity, this is as far from it as possible. It’s rather savory. There’s a bit of sweetness and a bit of spice that makes me think of a Southeast Asian sweet chili sauce. There’s also a salty note that reminds me of oyster sauce. After a generous helping of water, the sauces go away and leave behind a spiced rum cake.

Finish: Medium in length. It’s bitter and overoaked. Finishes a bit like solvent, unfortunately.

Conclusion: Independent bottlings of all of the big Speyside distilleries are an interest of mine and this being a SMWS bottling made me all the more excited for it. I can’t say I’ve had a whisky quite like this. The nose starts off fairly inviting, though uneventful, with the fruit. The palate is a strange assault on the senses with all sorts of sauces. With some water, the sauces give way to a very spiced rum cake. The finish isn’t pleasant. While this was interesting, I don’t think I’d want to try this again though cooking with it might be a rather enjoyable experience. Would I buy a bottle? No.

Final Score: 59.

Scotch Whisky Review #153, Speyside Whisky Review #62, Whisky Network Review #203

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.