Another Archives bottling from the Fishes of Samoa series. The guys at Whiskybase are using this label theme for quite a while, contrary to The Whisky Agency for example, who only have a theme for some four bottlings each time.

Anyway, apart from the fish on the label, it’s all about this whisky inside of course. Glen Keith is a whisky that’s generally not really on anyone’s radar for all I know, except for a couple of 1970 distilled ones that came out some four years ago. Those were insanely good.

The recent Blind Tasting Competition had a Glen Keith from The Perfect Dram bottler that might just be the highest scoring dram of the competition. It was one of my (and quite some others) favorites. Unfortunately, that one is gone and will most likely not be highly auctionable, like many independent bottlings.

Glen Keith is a distillery that has been mothballed for quite a long time since 1999, but has recently started production anew to supply single malts for the blends of Chivas Brothers and Pernod Ricard. Generally, the distilleries producing mainly blend components are not too highly regarded (except some, of course) but Glen Keith might just be one that’s going places.

Let’s see what this one is about!

Glen Keith 21 by Archives. Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
It’s rich and malty with sweet bread (brioche style), vanilla and cookie dough. Some baking spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. Apple pie! Rather rich and gentle. Warming, and quite well timed in this period of the year!

Sip:
The palate is surprisingly dry with more focus on the spices, warm apfel strudel (with the vanilla sauce of course). Some dry coconut bits and white oak.

Swallow:
The finish is slightly more ‘average’ but still quite tasty! It’s got good influences of the bourbon cask with vanilla and bread, nicely influenced by spices. Quite long with cookie dough lasting.

While this is not as good as The Perfect Dram (the name says it all, right?), this is still a very tasty dram. The depth is not vast, but there is enough deliciousness to find in the simple bourbon cask flavors. I can see this working as a blend component but I’m glad they bottled this as a single malt. Especially the sweet maltiness with the baking spices make this is a rather drinkable Apfel Strudel.

Glen Keith 1992, 21yo, 51.5%, Archives, Fishes of Samoa. Available at Whiskybase, obviously, for € 95

Full disclosure: I got this sample for free from the guys at Whiskybase. Thanks a lot!