The world of single malt whisky is wonderfully diverse and though it tends to be the big names that take most of the publicity there is plenty going on in the less famous distilleries that deserves to be better known. I recently received some samples from one of those via a friend of mine who consults on their website.

Glengoyne is a Highland distillery, but only just, situated is a beautiful spot about 5 miles south-east of Loch Lomond. It has the unique distinction of sitting right on the Highland Line – which runs between the distillery and the warehouse so the spirit is produced in the Highlands but matured in the Lowlands.

Owners Ian Macleod Distillers have an innovative approach to promoting its whiskies; for instance they combined with Visit Scotland and Michelin chef Andrew Fairlie to produce a Winter Food and Drink Guide, have helped promote both salmon and venison , and were unfortunate when the recent severe weather forced them to cancel a Christmas Food and Drink Festival. They’ve also been award winners – taking a gold award at the Scottish Field Whisky Challenge for the third year in a row.

Their production methods are quite unusual too, they reckon to be the slowest distillers – believing that it results in a smoother spirit – and they use barley which has been air-dried rather than the more usual peat smoke drying method. Coupled with that they are also doing interesting things in their maturing and bottling – one being the limited yearly bottling from a single cask allowing comparison of the way the whisky is maturing.

First tasting notes

The following are my first impressions of the three samples I received, I hope to follow them up later if Mike and I have time to get together for another tasting or if I can get my dad up here to try them.

English Merchants Choice

13 Years Old, 54.6%, distilled June 1997, Sherry Hogshead

Colour

Dark Sherry

Nose

Lots of Molasses, dark treacle, burnt toffee. Quite spirity to begin with but it fades quickly.

First Taste

There a strange effect with the sweetness. Initially it’s not-quite-bitter and then it becomes sweet with lots of black treacle coming through, and then it becomes bitter again. There’s a strong undercurrent of sherry but it’s all overlaid with a slightly burnt taste. There’s a suggestion of what I think is dates, which gives a slightly xmas cake effect. The tastes are mainly in the front and front-middle of the tongue.

Finish

The initial finish begins to fade quite quickly but then seems to reach a plateau which hangs around for quite a while.

21 Year Old

43%, no further details

Colour

Medium-dark, wit a touch of old gold

Nose

Immediately weaker on the nose as you would expect. Subtle, Muscovado sugar, and initial hint of something like marzipan but that doesn’t last.

First taste

Very much front of the tongue and compared to the nose is much stronger. There’s a feeling of chilli going on. It gets gradually sweeter but there’s always a kick in the end, right at the front of the tongue. Later there’s a slight pepperiness that goes further back on the tongue. Fairly dry, with almost a suggestion of country earth coming over. Relatively lightweight for a 21 year old, certainly compared to the 13 year old, and I’m a little surprised that it doesn’t have more body to it.

Later Taste

Later on there’s a slightly medicinal taste appears which is in some ways similar to the west island malts but because it’s devoid of the saltiness which characterises many of them it comes across in a quite different way. If asked to guess I would probably say that it’s from a second refill sherry cask, though there’s nothing to say and it may well not be the case. That’s partly from the colour and partly from the background taste – nothing like as strong as some of the more obviously sherried whiskies but definitely there in the background.

Postscript

A few days later I tried this one on its own, as I wondered if it had suffered from being sandwiched between its two stronger cousins. This time it seemed to have more character and I liked it more than I had the first time.

Single Cask

23 Years Old, 53.6%, distilled April 1986, European Oak Sherry Butt

Colour

Medium Gold

Nose and first taste

We’re immediately back in more complex territory and the extra strength is obvious. Much more my kind of whisky. However rather curiously the nose is relatively light and there’s nothing particularly distinctive to latch onto and name as a flavour, but the first taste is completely opposite to that – there’s an immediately complex hit that seems to fill the whole mouth. Very warm strong taste, dark chocolate, and the same sort of black treacle taste that we had in the first whisky but not as sweet this time. It might sound odd since there’s no real peat in it but this reminds me in some ways of the peaty Perthshire whiskies such as Blair Athol.

Later taste

A touch more sweetness comes through but the bitter chocolate with the slight chilli kick that I noticed in one of the other two is still there. There is sherry in the background but it’s nothing like as strong as the English Merchants Choice.

Overall Conclusions

Quite an enlightening tasting for me since this is entirely different to the sort of whiskies I usually drink. It’s a bit like the malt equivalent of drinking port or sherry when you’re used to dry white wine. Of the three I think I marginally preferred the English Merchant’s Choice, though the Single Cask might get the vote after a longer tasting. However I have a suspicion that I would need more time with this type before being able to really get a handle of the various tastes the Glengoynes contain as my palate is simply not used to them in this sort of context. I liked them much more then I expected I was going to after the initial sips, and I’d be interested to try more of them and explore this taste complex in greater depth. After all if you enjoy the outdoors it doesn’t have to be standing on the beaches of Islay or the cliffs of Skye with the wind in your face all the time – the gentler shores of Loch Lomond can be pretty good too!