Whisky : Glengoyne 9 Year SMWS 123.28 “Joyful impressions of Spring”

Country/Region : Scotland/Highlands

ABV : 61.7%

Cask : First Fill Ex-Bourbon

Age : 9 Years (Distilled Aug. 29, 2008)

Nose :  Christmas tree shopping: Norfolk pine, pine resin, pine oil.  Freshly mown grass, rolled sod, a dried Christmas wreath, and subtle menthol.  There are lots of herbal-woody pine notes and just a bit of glue stick and waxy honeycomb.

Palate : Oily and palate coating; menthol comes through strongly at first along with grass soccer fields.  Sorghum sugar, earthy matcha green tea, and sweet glue develop over time.  If a dram could be an herbal-grass bomb, this would be it.  Slightly bitter herbs and tea come along near the back end.

Finish : Medium length green apple and grassy cane sugar.

Score : 4

Mental Image : Dirty Soccer Cleats

Something Better : Port Charlotte 11Y BC:02 2007 (similar grass & glue, more horses/salt)

Something Better : Hibiki Blender's Choice (more complex, similar salt/hay bale savory quality) 

Something Similar : Royal Lochnagar 12Y GoT (similar herbal tea, more citrus/sugar)

Notes : Go ahead and add this to the list of drams that veer into the “really interesting” but not really something I want to drink category.  This was easily the grassiest scotch I have ever had.  While the nose had great pine notes that faded to reveal herbs and waxy sugars, the palate was loaded with fresh grass, sod, and herbal tea.  The finish carried the grass notes forward— after the green apple and sugars faded, there was a strong fresh mowed yard note that lingered.  I can see where they were going with “Joyful impressions of Spring” as the profile on this is unmistakably green.

While this was not a horrible whisky— it was interesting and it had a great body with a nice oily viscosity— it was not popular at our tasting.  By a large margin it ranked at the bottom of the evening and did not seem to attract any fans.  Still, it did open up quite nicely on later rounds of tasting and I think it would still be a fine whisky to sip on during a Spring evening.