Whisky: Glenrothes 12 Year, SMWS 30.108 “A taste of home”

Country/Region: Scotland/Speyside

ABV: 64.3%

Cask: Refill Sherry Butt

Age: 12 Year (Distilled 1 Feb. 2008)

Nose: Maple, malt, and citrus peel. Maple bars and maple syrup drizzled over melting butter on fresh waffles gradually gave way to caramel candies, dates, and Whoppers malted milk candies. Luscious and syrupy, the malty maple profile was studded with figs, nutmeg, clove, and orange and lemon peel.

Palate: Full-bodied with dried fruit, maple, and spice. Brown butter cookies, brown sugar oatmeal, and maple-drenched waffles came to mind as malty sweet flavors danced across the palate with dried figs, dates, and apricots. A few drops of water brought forward sarsaparilla, guava, and cranberry. Spice held court at the end with nutmeg, brown sugar, clove, and salt.

Finish : Lingering dry spice and buttery waffles.

Score: 6

Mental Image: Flapjacks ʻn Spice

Notes: At an end-of-2021 holiday tasting, this proved to be of the most popular drams of the evening. Glenrothes has always been popular among local sherry-heads, and this was more complex than some of the first fill Glenrothes we tasted earlier in the year and which SMWS has released like clockwork. The malty spirit married wonderfully with the refill cask so that the caramelized wood and sherry sugars carried the malt toward brown sugar and maple with fragrant spice and hints of fruit. The profile was deep, rich, and approachable in a way that some of the more robust first-fill drams were not and therefore held broader appeal for even those who fall outside the sherry-bomb end of the whisky spectrum.

On subsequent tastings, I found that this was a tad spicier and drier than I care for, and I missed some of those thicker tannic cask notes. I found this dram benefited a lot from a few drops of water to take the abv down closer to 45-50% (or possibly even lower). The water toned down the spice and highlighted more of the notes I enjoyed; pastries and brown sugar with a slathering of slightly tropical and occasionally tart fruits.