Glenburgie is another one of those Speyside distilleries that you’ve likely had before in a blend, just didn’t know it! Ever had Ballantine’s? If so, you’ve had plenty of Glenburgie whisky!

As usual, we sampled blind then revealed the whisky.

• Colour – Pale honey
• Nose – Lots of honey, overripe fruit, dry
• Palate – Very smooth, well-rounded, buttery, sweet spice… did we mention smooth??
• Finish – Quite peculiar and tough to pin down initially, bitter dark chocolate, a bit like a dry chardonnay, dusky
• Water – Um… I think we forgot to try….
• Speculation – Sense of being a whisky that may typically be used in a blend
• Comments – A perfect example of a whisky that is light yet complex, like the ‘Downton Abbey’ of whisky, there is a certain elegance and style

The hit of the evening? The Glenburgie though the Aultmore was also both interesting and enjoyable. Absolutely nothing wrong with the Hibiki however nothing exceptional either – just a rather pleasant dram.

However it once again reminded us – Yup – blindly just buy Gordon & MacPhail. Period. And just to re-inforce, our host pulled out the Mortlach 15 year to revisit.

Another member noted that the bottle indicates this Glenburgie was ’selected, produced & bottled’ by Gordon & MacPhail with the ‘produced’ element not standard statement in Gordon & MacPhail bottlings. Hmm…

Naturally, this prompted interest in comparing the Gordon & MacPhail Aultmore 14 year (2000) with the Aultmore 18 year we just sampled.

The other whiskies sampled in our November session included:

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