Overall rating
87.24/100
votes
40
Whiskybase ID
WB3721
Category
Single Malt
Bottler
Sestante (Ses)
Bottling serie
Antica Casa Marchesi Spinola
Vintage
1974
Bottled
1990
Stated Age
15 years old
Casktype
Sherry Wood
Number of bottles
1200
Strength
40.0 % Vol.
Size
750 ml
Added on
14 sep 2008 1:53 am

Average value

€ 1032.26

7 × in wishlist

40 × member ratings

33 × in collection

Whisky reviews for Glen Gordon 1974 Ses

6 users have left 7 reviews for this whisky. Average rating is 87.24 points.

  1. wheatfield scored this whisky 89 points Expert Junior

    Another cool sample fro Jacek!  Pour is medium amber. Nose is a medium sherried attack with some pipe tobacco, black pepper, lots of sweeter fruits, smoke, and some developing peat. Mouth is a bit sweeter, with lots of stewed fruits (peaches), some of that pepper, and an evolving peaty finish. Reminds me of an old Springbank. Good stuff.
    • Nose
      87 87
    • Taste
      89 89
    • Finish
      90 90

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  3. Tomek scored this whisky 88 points Expert Senior

    aroma: currants, gooseberries, slightly smoky, herbal
    flavor: delicate, fruity, marzipan, oregano
    finish: sweet, pleasant, fruity
    rating: 5.5

  4. Baanaanaabob scored this whisky 87 points Connoisseur

    Sherry, cooked vegetables, overripe fruits, drinkable

  5. hs305 scored this whisky 78 points Connoisseur

    [October, 2004] I refilled bottle no. 690 into small sample bottles for future reference.  I bought it for 90 Euro in September, 2004.In my old rating system (ten scales that translate into WB points: 50 - 66 - 75 - 80 - 82,5 - 85 - 87,5 - 90 - 92,5 - 95) I scored this 80.  Please see detailed review below.

  6. hs305 scored this whisky 78 points Connoisseur

    [March, 2017]  Some time ago I sat at the bar of the Highlander Inn in Craigellachie looking over the river Spey to the Macallan diistillery when the man besides me bitterly complained about how bad the quality of the Macallan malt is nowadays compared to older releases.  As a proof to his complaint he ordered two drams of Macallan for me:  An older 10 year bottling (most probably distilled in the early eighties) and a new one.  I had to confess he was right, the quality was remarkably different and not in favour of the new release.  I know by myself that all the old official Macallan bottlings are real stunners, I had not a single one that did not impress me.  But is this true for all old Macallans?

    That is why I tried two undisclosed Macallan from IBs today, this one and https://www.whiskybase.com/whisky/34926/pride-of-strathspey-25-year-old-gm and an young Cadenhead dumpy https://www.whiskybase.com/whisky/42314/macallan-1979-ca

    This Glen Gordon is quite an odd one:  Besides the typical Macallan sherry and creaminess it is full of strange off-notes that I never experienced in a Macallan before.  A lot of these nasty flavours remind me of rotten things, rotten oranges, rotten spices...  Besides this there are heavy tannins that dry out this dram unpleasently.  This is not a Macallan I like!

    So, could it be that this Macallan fell victim to a rotten sherry cask?  You know when Spain stopped exporting its sherry cask-wise to England (to be bottled in London) the Scottish distillers faced a problem.  They needed sherry cask-matured whisky for some of their blends and brands (like Macallan) and now they had to import these casks empty from Spain.  In the beginning this took them somtimes weeks (if not months) after emptying the casks and as the weather usually is very hot in Spain the sherry-soaked wood began to rot under these conditions. 

    That is why they started to burn sulphur candles within the casks to kill all the bacteria that caused the rottening, with the unpleasant effect that all the whisky from these casks now is heavily spoiled with sulphur flavours.  And sulphur as the smell of hell does not work very well (within the beloved drink of the angels), at least not for me!!!!

    All in all, this Glen Gordon is not a very nice Macallan and I would not suggest to open your bottle unless you want to demonstrate the effect of (slightly) rotten casks to your friends.  But at least you can tell them this nice little story...
    • Nose
      80 80
    • Taste
      73 73
    • Finish
      72 72

  7. Jeep51 scored this whisky 81 points Expert Senior

    Disappointing
    • Nose
      Gourmand. Fruity and pastry (brioche, bread dough, butterscotch). Not very complex, nor powerful but pleasant.
    • Taste
      Relatively soft unfortunately and then after a few seconds, the wood and the drought make their entry. Pity. Very marked by raisins and honey.
    • Finish
      Raisins and drought.

  8. Whisky scored this whisky 89 points Specialist

    Undisclosed Macallan

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