We all know Whisky Sponge for the fairly hilarious blog posts from a while ago. Hilarious if you are a bit embedded in the whisky world and know who and what all references refer to. It seems to have gone quiet the last year or so, with Whisky Sponge becoming more and more of a job and not just a time-consuming hobby.

Anyway, apart from the tongue-in-cheek complaining about the whisky industry, the April Fools posts are highly recommended for a bit more serious reading:

• Whisky Land: A Perspective on Whisky and Terroir
• Whisky: The Past and the Possible
• Whisky: Looking Beyond Cynicism
• Old Style Whiskies: Corrections and Clarifications
• Whisky: Change, Climate and Privilege
• The Problems of Consensus

Of course, for the last couple of years, since 2019 or so, WhiskySponge has also become an independent bottler of some fine malts and sometimes other things. I’ve not had much experience with Angus’s bottlings, since they tend to sell out instantly, and it’s become quite challenging to get things shipped without having pay another hundred bucks or so to DHL upon arrival.

Luckily, my friend Jason B. Standing gave me a sample of this Glen Grant. From a bourbon cask, nonetheless. Let’s dive in!

Sniff:
Some tropical fruit and a lot of banana. Apple, pear, and vanilla too. A bit of oak, in a sweet way. In the background there’s a slight cardboard-y note.

Sip:
The palate is rather gentle with only a little tell-tale bite of alcohol. If this is over 46%, I’d be surprised. It is still sweet with oak and vanilla. Some baked apples and pears, and banana. Apple crumble? With cinnamon and some raisins.

Swallow:
The finish changes a little bit, and is much more sweet than the palate was. It’s very much on the banana and baked apple route, with vanilla and oak. But, much more sweet than before.

Fresh bourbon doing what fresh bourbon can, but unfortunately it is too sweet for me. A scotch version of Jack Daniel’s?

When I tried it, I didn’t know it was a Glen Grant, nor any of the other specifications. I would have never guessed, since I tend to associate Glen Grant with a bit more complexity than this one shows. Blindly, I would have gone for GlenDronach, since their bourbon cask bottlings tend to be on the sweet side too!

85/100