Whisky : Glenlossie 35 Year; The Whisky Agency

Country/Region : Scotland/Speyside

ABV : 52%

Cask : Ex-Bourbon Hogshead

Age : 35 Years (Distilled 1975, Bottled 2011)

Nose :  Grains, pastries, and citrus fruits— a warm and welcoming breakfast.  Toasted cinnamon pastries, sweet cream, yogurt, blueberries, and dry almond cookies.  The citrus hangs mostly in the background, lemon or grapefruit, maybe even a bit of orange juice pulp or gummy bears.  

Palate :  Medium bodied with a mild astringency.  Rich toasted spices, dried fruits, dried florals, and old book binding.  The astringency gives the impression of dried preserved things.  Floral and sweet like salted fresh churned butter on warm bread with a drizzle of honey.  Strong herbal tea and almond cookies reprise astringent dry notes on the back end.

Finish : Lingering grains and soft spices with tea cookies and tart fruit.

Score : 6

Mental Image : Grapefruit yogurt on toast.

Something Similar : Eigashima 5 Year Cask Strength (similar honey, dried fruit, cream, and citrus)

Something Similar : Royal Lochnagar 12 Y GoT (similar tea/fruits, more earth/sweet pastries)

Notes : Old and refined, this dram was perfectly warm and welcoming.  There were no surprises and no wild flavors on this, it was perfectly tamed by time.  I admit I hoped for a bit more complexity on this, a bit richer palate of flavors.  I enjoyed the pastry notes and the dried fruity florals that came through, but there was nothing that really grabbed me.  It is always loads of fun to drink something older than myself, I just wish this had a bit more of the rich spice and fruit I associate with Glenlossie.  Of course my experience with Glenlossie has been with malt produced in the last couple decades— so the distillery crew and methods have no doubt changed a bit in the last four and a half decades.  I swear this had a bit of dried peat or wisps of smoke on it that I have not picked up on more recent Lossie.

Though I am not typically a huge proponent of tacking on a weird wine finish to an old malt, I do wonder if this would have benefited from a refill sherry or maybe an amarone finish for a year or two to help emphasize some of the fruit.  It is possible that could have further emphasized the astringency, which I already found a bit much, but I think it would have been a gamble worth taking on a malt that is so close to being great, but just not quite hitting it.