Thursday, November 7, 2013

Whisky Review: Glenkinchie 12 Year

Glenkiniche is one of the few remaining Lowland malt distilleries and the only one remaining in Diageo's portfolio after their forerunner, DLC, axed a number of Lowland distilleries in the 1980s and 1990s. They may have decided to consolidate their Lowland resources into Glenkinchie because, unlike so many other distilleries, it was located near a large city. The distillery is only a 15 miles drive from the center of Edinburgh, which makes it very convenient for visitors. For that reason, Diageo has made the visitor center at Glenkinchie very comprehensive, as it may be the only one of their distilleries that many people traveling to Scotland have an opportunity to see.

I'll defer to Malt Madness for the history of Glenkinchie, which seems to be both complicated and disputed.

Glenkinchie 12 Year

Nose: rather floral (grows with time), vegetal notes, vanilla, a bit of creamy perfumed sherry and cacao, malt, gentle caramel. After adding a few drops of water, it becomes more malt-focused but flatter, with some cinnamon bark and black pepper coming out, there are fewer floral/perfume notes, more vanilla and fruit come out, and the sherry is lighter.

Taste: a strong attack - initially sweet with big pepper/ginger coming in with a sour sherried tinge mid-palate, perfume/floral notes come in near the back alongside bitter tannic oak and cacao, with creamy malt riding under everything. After dilution, the pepper retreats significantly to reveal more vegetal malt sweetness, there is less floral character but the sourness remains, and some vanilla pops out up front.

Finish: sour and bitter vegetal/herbal notes that seem strangely off (decomposed grass clippings?), malt, black pepper, oak, a bit of sherry, perfume. After dilution, the vegetal off notes just get worse and it gets a strange metallic aftertaste.

It may just be my palate, but this whisky just seems wrong. The nose is decent, if unremarkable. The taste doesn't do much for me, but isn't patently offensive. The finish is where it all falls apart - 'decomposed grass clippings' is not a phrase that should be describing a whisky being sold for actual money. I know Diageo doesn't particularly care about its single malts, as most of what Glenkinchie produces will simply go into blends, but this one seems downright shameful. There's no sense of care or quality in its construction, just something slapped together. Unless something is fundamentally wrong at the distillery, there's no reason to be putting out such a bad product.

I was very glad to only have a 200 mL bottle of this whisky as I could barely even make it through that much, though it also let me suffer through it enough times to be sure that it wasn't just a singular impression. With that said, people clearly do buy this whisky, so it must have something to recommend it to others. I'll just state that you should probably try some before buying a bottle, in case you respond the same way to it that I did.

10 comments:

  1. For a good friend of mine Glenkinchie is the favorite whisky. He used to only drink this and even now he prefers it to pretty much everything else. He tried to convince me too, but it didn't work. I didn't have as negative an experience as you, and a few years back I did work my way through an entire bottle, but I found it mostly harsh and not too interesting. In this respect there are some affinities with Oban 14yo.

    On the other hand, I remember very fondly a bottle of 1989 Distiller's Edition...

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    1. I can imagine the DE being better - they seem to pull better barrels and the sherry casks would help round out the spirit.

      I also got bottles of Dalwhinnie and Oban in the pack this Glenkinchie came in, so I'll have reviews of those ones posted in future.

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  2. Interesting, I found Glenkinchie 12 to be polite, quiet, and a little boring. Now, my experience the old bottling of Glenkinchie 10yo was very negative. To me Dalwhinnie and Oban are better, but I'm sort of curious if your 200mL set was stored poorly by the retailer at some point.

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  3. I really didnt like it. It tastes unique and smooth but didnt get that classic high which you get it from whisky

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  4. Excellent tasting notes. This was my least favorite of the Classic Malts back in the 90s. I haven't re-tasted it and it's been years - but my recollection is very much in line with your current notes. Recently I tasted Dalwhinny 15 again and it was much better than my recollection. I suspect they have upped their game with that one. Hard to imagine that the lackluster Glenkinchie survives while St. Magdelaine, Littlemill, and Bladnoch closed (I know the latter re-opened years later).

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    1. A Dalwhinnie 15 Year review is forthcoming and yes, it is a vastly superior version of the "light and floral" style. And I have no doubt that Glenkinchie could make good whisky (what well-funded distillery couldn't?) - Diageo simply doesn't care to.

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    2. A few years ago the Dalwhinnie 15yo was one of my top 3 favorite whiskies. I haven't had it in a while and I hope that the quality kept up. I was always impressed with its body. I didn't find it light, unless you mean clean (i.e., not peaty, not sherried, not dirty, etc.) The malt and floral notes ringing warm and clear. Mmmm...

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    3. They haven't gotten rid of the worm tubs yet, Florin, so I think you're safe.

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    4. Oh yeah, there was a story about that, wasn't it. Those big ugly things that are actually hanging outside the distillery. Didn't they replace them at some point and then quickly realized that it wasn't a good idea ?

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  5. The 2011 Glenkinchie 20 year old is really good if a bit hard to find now. I think the extra eight years of maturation and a cask strength of 55% allowed the barley flavors to come out and shine. It reminded me a lot of Glenmorangie Astar in that regard even though Astar is a quite a bit younger.

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