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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Single Malt Report: Glenlivet 12 year old (bottled in 1980s)

This was the first of my four pours at Bar Cordon Noir.


Distillery: Glenlivet
Age: minimum 12 years
Bottling date: 1980s
Maturation: Probably a mix of ex-bourbon casks and ex-sherry casks
Region: Speyside
Alcohol by Volume: 43%


NEAT
Its color is light gold.  The nose begins with loads of barley and fresh whole wheat bread.  Then come the fresh loquats, followed by Oloroso sherry in a Campari-coated glass.  With time there's some new carpet and burnt pie crust.  The palate is pleasant and soft, but with some sticky thickness.  It reads as loads of baked fruits one moment, then fruit punch and orange peels the next.  A bit of anise and black licorice too.  Then it's capped by a wave of Talisker-like pepper.  The finish is lengthy but uncomplicated.  Citrus, papaya, and malt.

WITH WATER
Orange, pear, mint, and soda bread now appear on the nose.  A lot of roses on the palate.  The pepper enters the finish, along with milk chocolate.

Something gruesome happened to Glenlivet's cask management over the past thirty years.  (Or maybe more recently because the early Nadurra batches were very good and occasionally the current 18 year old is too.)  On New Year's Eve 2007/8, I had my first negative run-in with Glenlivet 12.  I sipped and it was......not good.  The finish was short and awful and apparently memorable because the sense memory still exists.  And this was before my prima donna whisky snobbery.  I've tried the 12 annually ever since, and it's not getting better.  So when the rumors started coming in that Pernod's phasing it out for an NAS Founder's Reserve I shed not a tear.

Meanwhile, having twice tried the 1980s version of the Twelve, I find no similarity between it and the current version.  The Twelve as it existed thirty years ago was a lightly-sherried well-textured rich single malt that could stand proudly next to any (and above many) of today's twelve year old Speysiders.  I cannot say the same thing about the current version.  The three extra ABV points (43 versus 40) are nice but that wouldn't explain most of the change.  There was no extra peating going on at the time of this one's bottling.  Perhaps they have since changed barley varieties, sped up the fermentation time, and attempted to distill faster.  But I think the cask management is the main culprit.  The oak in the current 12 is bland, resinously bitter, and cardboardy.  None of those words can be used for either of the '80s bottlings that I've tried.  And just to add to the fun, the 1980s version swims very well, while the current addition is already very watery as is.

I'm not saying that this 1980s Glenlivet is A+ whisky, but it's damn good whisky.  And I wish Glenlivet still made stuff like this.

Availability - Probably the occasional auction
Pricing - ???
Rating - 86

12 comments:

  1. Modern Glenlivet is pretty singularly bad for a major brand. Even Glenfiddich is simply boring, rather than something I would actively avoid.

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    1. I'll even take Pernod's Chivas 12 or Ballantine's 12 over GL 12 at a bar, which is fine because they're usually cheaper. Even GL 15 is sub-mediocre, which is a shame because I like French Oak-aged whisky. And that opinion is not from one sample of the 15, as I suffered through an entire bottle of it.

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  2. Luckily one can find those 80s and even 70s bottlings at nearly any auction. And they usually will sell for less then 50 bucks.

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    1. That's good news! To me it's easily worth $50, especially since the current version is selling near $40 in some parts of the US.

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  3. Picked one of these up at an auction recently. Haven't opened it yet, but looking forward to doing it some day soon. Cheers!

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    1. Hey Josh. It was actually the Whisky Redhead himself who poured me my first '80s Glenlivet 12yo. Actually it was at his place and you may have been there. :) Do you remember how much these bottlings were going for at the auction?

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  4. I loved my bottle of Nadurra Triumph 1991 (still have one sealed bottle left). However I have to agree that the present Glenlivet line-up is boring (I was so glad to find minis of the 15 and 18 to taste),

    I wonder where that pepper note in the old Glenlivet 12 is coming from? That's usually something I find in Highland Park. And something I'd love to find in a Glenlivet.

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    1. Regarding pepper notes, in rye and some malt new makes I often find white peppercorn notes. And sometimes sherry cask sulfur lends a peppery quality, which I like. This Glenlivet was pretty well matured, and probably had older stuff in it, so maybe it came from the sherry casks. Or maybe it came from the malt drying method. Serge finds a little bit of smoke in these 12s (http://www.whiskyfun.com/archiveseptember14-1-Clynelish-Brora-Benrinnes-Karuizawa-Glenlivet.html#020914), perhaps that's related.

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  5. I've found the Glenlivet 21 to be outstanding and is a favorite whisk(e)y of mine. From what I'm reading here, I hope the slippage of the lower ages doesn't creep into the 21. I love that stuff.

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    1. That's my worry about the 18s too. I've been looking to get a bottle of the 21 as it has the reputation of being much better than the 25yo at less than half the price. I'd assume that the 21 would maintain its better quality longer than the youngins. Possible good news: The whiskybase community is giving the 2013 & 2014 batches of the 21 very good ratings.

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    2. The Glenlivet 21 has also gotten good reviews on the Scotch Reddit. Which I might add has grown considerably so I find it a great source for reviews.

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    3. Yeah, I've been checking out more of their reviews recently, especially since some Reddit folks have had the excellent judgement to provide positive links to some of my posts. :)

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