I looked for a bottle of Whisky with my birthdate over years, now i found this one and i was very excited and curious to taste it.
I had a interesting tasting with additional two Whiskys to compare, in fact: The Chita (japanese Grain Whisky) and the Glendronach Parliament 21 years old.
I thought this comparison is helpful for me, to rank this Granary 1973 more objective.
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Nose
I started with the CHITA, who smells very sweet and soft like toffee and macadamiacream and coconut. For me very less Oak in the nose.
The GLENDRONACH 21 is in the nose as sweet as the chita, the typical sherrybomb nose with all its flavors of dark dried fuits and walnut. I can smell the age of 21 years and much spicy intense oak.
THE GRANARY 1973 is not so intense in the nose like the Glendronach 21. I got sweetness, toffee, macadamiacream, coconut, the oak is very pleasant incorporated. Nice complex nose but not as old and intense i expecteted from a 46 years old cask strength whisky.
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Taste
The CHITA tasted like the nose very soft and sweet.
The GLENDRONACH 21 tasted very intense like dried plums and raisins, dark chocolate and espresso. Massive spicy oak and harmoniously integrated tannins.
THE GRANARY 1973 tasted very sweet at first, then i got the typical sherryflavors with additional similar grainflavors like the CHITA has. And again i do not make the experience i expected, to have a 46 years old whisky in my glass.
At last i mixed the CHITA and the GLENDRONACH 21 together in one glass and i was surprised because of getting a whisky very close to THE GRANARY 1973.
If you want to now, how THE GRANARY 1973 tastes like before you buy it, you have to mix THE CHITA (1-2 parts) with the GLENDRONACH 21(one part) to get a sample ;-)
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Finish
THE GRANARY 1973 for me, is a nice complex whisky, very sweet and for that age almost no bitterness. In face of 46 years of aging it still has typical grain notes what is not bad for me, because it makes this whisky more complex. The cask can not cover the grain completely like Benedikt Lüning from whisky.de said in his tastingvideo in youtube.
To conclude this tasting i would say, ok its a nice whisky, but it can not give you the expirience of a 46 years old whisky. For me the GLENDRONACH 21 or for example a GLENFARCLAS 25 are more intense in the nose and tastes older than this GRANARY 1973.