Whisky : Glen Grant 30 Year (1988), SMWS 9.149 “Delightful gravitas”

Country/Region : Scotland/Speyside

ABV : 55.1%

Cask : 1st Fill Oloroso Sherry Butt (27y), 1st Fill Pedro Ximénez Sherry (3y)

Age : 30 Years (Distilled April 10, 1988)

Nose : Dried flowers, dates, and figs give the impression of concentrated fruity fine sugar.  Musky rose in bloom with rich garden soil along with delicate rose water.  Subtle spices of cinnamon and ginger with an unmistakable fruity nuttiness of almonds or almond confectionary.

Palate : The depth of flavor wafts from dried fruits to nuts; sweet succulents to bitter menthol.  Crushed blueberries and blackberries are sweet to the nose, but tart on the palate.  Faintly vegetable and sour, Pandan cake or black sugar give sun dried concentrated sweetness.  Black pepper and ginger provide an element of spice that helps tie things together.

Finish : Depth of flavor falls quickly toward bitter herbs or scalded milk with faint notes of menthol, orange, and clove.

Score : 5

Mental Image : A garden party; dry almond cookies, bitter black tea, and the sweet smell of flowers in bloom.

Notes : The oldest scotch I’ve had the pleasure to pour (as measured by time in the cask, rather than date of distillation).  Also my first Glen Grant.

I am sure someone will love this Glen Grant, but I did not.  It is obviously outside my usual flavor profile, but I was still excited to try it.  I have had few other drams even close to this long in the cask and while age ‘ain’t nothing but a thing’ there is something magical about having an older malt and imagining where you were when it was distilled, matching the progress of our lives against the time the liquid spent in a cask waiting patiently.  Back in 1988 I had just become a big brother, I was still pretending to be a dinosaur, and life was simple, but good.  How much has the world changed over the last three decades?  How much have I changed?  How many friends and family have I gained or lost?

There is something intensely romantic about cupping an older whisky and getting lost in thought.

Aside from the magic of nostalgia, this one did not hit the mark.  There were a number of bitter tart off notes that competed with and clashed against the concentrated sweetness.  It was almost as though there were two different profiles in one glass, each tripping over the other.  I was left wondering if three years ago, when someone was tasting this they thought it was close but just missing something and so transferred it to a PX cask, hoping to round things out with some more time.  This single cask probably would have been better in a blend, its weak points compensated by other casks and rounded out.

At our SMWS tasting, ‘Battle of the Glens,’ the Grant came out probably second to the Glen Scotia we tried, but ahead of the Glen Elgin.  Despite the relative disappointment, the bottle did not damper the overall enthusiasm the group has for older sherry matured Glen Grants, so I am sure this won’t be the last Glen Grant I review.