Scotch Whisky Review #361: Archives Butterflies from the USA “A Speyside Distillery” Glenlivet 26 Year (1992)

Distillery: Glenlivet.

Bottler: Archives.

Region: Speyside.

Age: 26 Year. Distilled on June 17th, 1992 and bottled on October 30th, 2018.

ABV: 51.50% Cask Strength.

Cost: $170.

Color: 1.0, Deep Copper. Natural Color and Non-Chill Filtered.

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Nose: (according to the wife) Lots of sweeter notes here. Honey, canned peaches, molasses, and black sugar make up the main notes here. Some lemon drops and a bit of wild flowers come through towards the back as well.

Palate: Follows along really nicely where the nose leaves off. Wild flowers and honey are the main notes here along with some malt and notes of hay. A citrus candy note that is somewhere between Ricola and lemon drops comes through. With a splash of water, notes of of baked goods come out. Malted milk biscuits and a pineapple upside down cake, particularly the soggy part with the pineapple, come front and center and add another lovely element to this. A tropical fruit mix sneaks in as well.

Finish: Medium in length. Malted milk biscuits, wild honey, and pineapple upside down cake really dominate here.

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Conclusion: It always amuses me when bottlers are required to not disclose the name of the source distillery on a label but then a very quick Google search will turn up where it came from. This bottling by the folks at Whiskybase for the Archives line is exactly one of those, a Glenlivet under as much disguise as David De Gea when he was signing for Manchester United. Quirks about labelling requirements aside, the folks at Whiskybase who pick bottlings for Archives have a strong reputation of picking very good casks and they’ve lived up to that reputation here. This Glenlivet exhibits just how good whisky from the Speyside giant can be. The notes of wild honey that start in the nose and go throughout are delicious and do a really good job and providing cohesion. The canned fruit, molasses, malted milk biscuits, and pineapple upside down cake notes that come and go are delicious and provide a lot of depth of flavor to this dram. Well done and I’m very happy to have a bottle!

Final Score: 87.

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Scotch Whisky Review #361, Speyside Review #131, Whisky Network Review #511

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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.