BOTTLE #3 [Aug 2019] WB83.69[133]
One more bottle then, just to make sure!
Much like I had with Lidl’s [25yo & > 34yo] Glenalba’s [WB], this short-lived love affair is certainly over. This third bottle is far too young and spirity. Unlike the first two, this one ended up hanging around on the back shelf for some time. Last month I pulled it out to see whether it had rallied.
N: Initially, the engineering behind this one’s creation appears very effective [WN], but closer scrutiny reveals the short cuts. It’s pretty basic and needed months of softening. Thankfully by the bottle’s end the nose became more forgiving. Descriptors: [sherry] syrup, bready, sweet & sour vinegar, honeyed husky crushed nuts, tahini, a touch of white spirt-soaked paint brushes,….
T: Whist the nose may have opened up, the arrival on the palate is generally young and nippy yet proved most agreeable to the uninitiated. Though it demonstrates a bitter-sweet profile fairly well, there is a sense of incompletion, something lacking as if it needs blending. So what did I do? I blended it with an older blend, Ralfy-styley [coming up].
F: The finish is fine if short, murky waxy sweet sour and spirity/grainy becoming more mildly sweet-bitter with nutty caramel/molasses-light.
C: A fair sherried blended malt for its price point, just no comparison to the first bottle.
Scores 79 points
However, pour some of this juice into a hip flask and forget about it for three months and hey presto, we’re significantly closer the calibre of the first bottle again! I guess if the industry hasn’t the discipline to wait any longer for their spirit to age, then we’ll have to – or alternatively – look to older juice on the secondary market:
https://whiskylovingpianist.wordpress.com/2019/09/09/bottle-polishing-sherried-scotch-old-new/