Whisky: Glenesk 24 Year (1975), SMWS 86.8 “Angelica and Garden Sheds”

Country/Region: Scotland/Highland

ABV: 59%

Cask: Bourbon Barrel

Age: 24 Years (Distilled July 1975, Bottled June 2000)

Nose: Musty and earthy, ginger root and cinnamon, aged coffee, vegetal, machine oil, black pepper and waxy cheese rind.

Palate: Medium to full-bodied, oily, ginger and citrus, aged coffee, hint of fish oil and toasted nuts, walnut oil, fruity peppers and spirited peppercorn prickle.

Finish: Long and lingering with aged coffee, earth, and walnut oil

Score: 9

Mental Image: Hobbit-holes of the Rich and Famous

Narrative & Notes: My first impression was one of a hobbit’s burrow as the aroma offered up musty earth with a larder full of root vegetables, tree roots coming through the ceiling, cheeses in waxy rinds, ginger root, cinnamon, and trays of sprouting mushrooms. Aged coffee, spicy and rich, developed with machine oil and cracked black pepper. Medium to full-bodied and oily, the flavor profile presented a tonic of crushed ginger, lemon rind, and aged coffee that was spicy, rich, and citrusy. The citrus and aged coffee lingered with a touch of salty fish oil, toasted pine nut, and walnut oil of the mid-palate. The hobbit larder’s underlying musty earth faded as fruity habanero peppers and a spirited peppercorn spice tickled at the end. The finish was long and lingering with aged coffee, earth, and walnut oil.

I did my first pour of this to celebrate, or mourn, the passing of Spring Break, that brief period in the semester when I can work as furiously as possible on research and writing for the summer. This was my first encounter with Glen Esk, also known as Hillside Distillery or Montrose (it had a habit of changing names), which shuttered in 1985 as the malaise of the Whisky Loch deepened. While the distillery was torn down in 1996, the on-site maltings still operate.

As this was my first experience with the distillery, I had no idea what to expect. I wondered if my palate was a bit off when all my online searching seemed to turn up descriptions of Glenesk as clean, cereal, and orchard fruit— not the musty-earthiness I encountered. Lucky for me, the Whisky Exchange preserved SMWS’s tasting notes, which, back in the day, came on a little card on the side. The abridged tasting notes below ended up not all that different from my own:

“The colour is pale amber, indicating a not-too-active U.S. cask (a good thing at this age); the first nose is slightly prickly, with angelica, crystallised ginger and other glace fruits bound together with a trace of cake mix and sherry, with a whiff of smoke behind. Water develops the latter into old creosote - a weather-beaten garden shed in the sun, dried fruit (dates in the foreground), fudge and Carob chocolate. The flavour is smooth, soft and full, with an interesting saltiness. An unusual, highly complex and very rare old whisky.”

Overall, a wonderful treat, a lovely unicorn whisky, and another Pokemon checked off the Pokédex.

Image Credit: The Whisky Exchange