15/04/2021 Glenlivet

Glenlivet Solera (48.3%, Thompson Bros, drawn 1994, 17b): this is the dram that PT poured me on the last day of the latest Hogmanay sojourn, that I could not try, because I was driving. Nose: ZOMG, it smells like something from the 1950s, at a time when the locomotive of Europe's industrial might was unleashed once more, after half a decade of forced slumber. More prosaically, this has metal to spare, petrol (not of the unrefined, diesel kind, however), as well as lovely fruit (kumquat, overripe peach and even mango), a distant note of stale bread and more-pronounced lemonade. The stale bread mutates into stale tobacco, though it struggles to make itself heard, behind the growing fruitiness. Boy! is this nose something, or what? Tree-bark mulch, deep-purple tulips, leather grease, hair grease (a 1950s staple, incidentally), cast-iron cauldrons, heated by naked flames. The second nose is a debauchery of tropical fruits left on a table, under a heating lamp (those nonsensical things one sees outdoors in the winter). Mango, guava, mud-covered papaya, perhaps with a sprinkle of ether. Mouth: whatever the phrase "old school" evokes for you, I pretty much guarantee it is in this dram. It is metallic from the off, herbaceous too, with lichen and verbena, whilst also fruity (crumbly Bramley apples, cider), and intensely powerful. The ABV might be reasonable on paper, yet this still kicks like a mule. Ginger shavings, cinnamon powder, surgical alcohol -- actually, that might be xylene instead. It does have "hot metal knife" stencilled all over it, and I almost expect a fruit picker to knock on my door with a machete in hand. Finish: the poem continues with a big drop of fruit, metal and herbs. The finish stops as abruptly as it came, giving the impression it is short, but as soon as the taste buds regain composure, they pick up a persistent humming of flavours: peppermint, broken razorblades and dried herbs. The herbs (verbena, sage, marjoram, thyme) provide a not-so-subtle bitterness that veers towards pencil-sharpener blade without being so extreme. I remember 117.3 tends to be so upon opening a new bottle, then that transforms into mango juice with oxidation. This has been in a half-empty sample for over a year, and in an open bottle before that, so it is unlikely it would change much. Repeated sipping makes it creamier, with melted milk chocolate, though that is fleeting: it quickly comes back to the herbaceous profile that is closer and closer to citrus leaves (lemon, calamansi, bergamot). Amazing dram, delicious and complex. Even if I find it very different from the first time I had it, it still deserves the same score. 10/10 (Thanks for the sample, PT)