Whisky: Glenturret 10 Year SMWS 16.60 “Entering uncharted paths”

Country/Region: Scotland/Highland

ABV: 56.9%

Cask: Rechar Hogshead

Age: 10 Years (Distilled 25 Nov. 2010)

Nose: Campfire, meat, malt, shoyu, and maple syrup.  Hints of smoked vanilla, coals, hay, and iron.

Palate: Medium-bodied with meat, sweet shoyu, hickory smoke, bacon, cacao husks, grill char, lingering notes of iron, caramelized meat, and grass at the end.

Finish: Medium-length with grassy, metallic sugars.

Score: 6

Mental Image: Coyote’s Barbecue Party

Narrative & Notes: A lovely heavily Peated Glenturret, also known as Ruadh Maor. The aroma was rich with campfire, meat, and malt as smokey bacon and smoked vanilla dueled in the vapors while shoyu and maple syrup hung in the background. Breakfast came to mine as a rich campfire smoke, whole grain waffles, and melted butter emerged with hints of iron, hay, and a whiff of a horse stable. The flavor profile was sweeter than expected; medium-bodied with an underlying caramelized barbecue— though not tangy— to the meat, sweet shoyu or brown sugar and liquid smoke perhaps. The impression of a dirty gristly grill popped out between bacon and hints of iron, grass, and dry cacao husks. The finish was good, medium length with a grassy-metallic sweetness.

When we poured this a few months ago during a local whisky club tasting, it was our only peated malt of the night. No surprise, for many of the peat heads present, it was easily their favorite evening. Yet, not everyone was delighted; my peat-loving wife, for instance, thought the dram was a bit too simple and sweet on the palate. We have tasted a lot of peated Glenturret over the last couple of years, and at least one sister cask to this (though at only seven years), and I tend to agree— this did not have the same rich depth as some of our favorites.

Overall, it is hard to go wrong with peated Glenturret. If I awarded fractional scores, this would have been closer to a seven than a six— it was good, but not quite there.