Whisky: Glenturret 20 Year (2001), SMWS 16.58 "Hair-tingling revelation"

Country/Region: Scotland/Highland

ABV: 53.7%

Cask: Port Pipe (18Y), First Fill Oloroso Hogshead

Age: 20 Years (Distilled 3 April 2001)

Nose: Caramel, chocolate, cream, stone fruit, stewed plums, cherry; subtle botanicals and minerals.

Palate: Full-bodied and thick with rich stewed fruits and herbs, orange peel, cinnamon, balsamic, caramelized fruits and pastry.

Finish: Medium to long and tannic with brown sugar buns, cinnamon, and orange peel.

Score: 6 (77)

Mental Image: Fruit Punch Cocktail Hour

Narrative & Notes: The aroma was bursting with waves of caramel, chocolate, and cream washing over stone fruits, stewed plums, and a kirsch-soaked black forest cake.  Botanicals with an antiseptic edge lingered in the background as a touch of minerality lent the impression of old-school Flintstone vitamins. Full-bodied and thick with rich stewed fruits and musty herbs— stone fruits and orange peel collided with herbal tinctures and dried grass. Sweet cinnamon spice, balsamic, and more caramelized fruits in a buttery crust developed with time and came through more strongly with water.  The finish was medium to long and tannic with brown sugar buns, cinnamon, and orange peel.

It took a little over a year of coming back to this before I finally felt as though it had left the run of “middling and boring” to “boring, but good.” I am sure to some that will sound like an offensively low bar to cross, but I found this remarkably boring and cask-driven compared to a similar cask from a few years back (Cask 16.39 for reference). I had high hopes for it, and another sibling, cask 16.59, released in Spring 2022. On the whole, neither of the two reached the heights I hoped, though 16.59 had more lovely cola notes.

Overall, not bad, but a bit of an unwieldy and disorderly cask-driven affair.