Right after last week’s posts about the rather awesome Twitter Tasting by Douglas Laing and The Whisky Wire, we’re diving right into another tasting. This time one I physically attended in Den Bosch at De Whiskykoning. At least, I was there for the largest part since I was half an hour late due to me leaving work late (beer) and trains also not helping.

The theme of the tasting was ‘Highlands & Campbeltown’ which is a recurring theme in autumn (spring = Lowlands, summer = Speyside, winter = Islay).

Since I was half an hour late for the tasting I missed the first two drams (Kilkerran Work in Progress 6, both the bourbon and the sherry wood), but I got those as a sample from Rob and will taste them this week, so I can put in the review at the end.

The first dram I tried was the new 21 year old Glengoyne. I reviewed the previous one a while back and was interested to find out how they differ.

The new Glengoyne 21 year old

Sniff:
The sherry cask is obvious not only from the colour. The nose gives you sherry, a lot of fruit and chocolate. Apple pie even, with alcohol and tannins. The fruitiness is of the dried apricot and plum kind.

Sip:
On the palate it stays rather dry (in a very delicious way) with cocoa and coffee. The fruit is present too but in a rather generic way. Some sherry too.

Swallow:
It is still dry, of course, with dried peaches and chocolate. Even a hint of orange wedges. Pretty long.

Although it is quite a dry kind of sherried whisky, it is an utterly delicious one. The fruitiness with not only sherry influence but also some sherry flavour is really nice. I was surprised to find the apple pie notes on the nose because I usually associate that more with bourbon casks.

Anyway, a great opener for the evening and it set the bar high. The price went up since I bought the previous edition about five years ago, which was to be expected. But, compared to a lot of other 21 year old distillery bottlings, € 107.50 seems fairly reasonable.

Glengoyne 21, 2013 edition, 43%, matured in, I believe, Oloroso sherry casks. € 107.50 at De Whiskykoning.