11/11/2026 Glen Garioch

Glen Garioch 52yo 1973/2026 Chapter Thirty Three (53.2%, Decadent Drinks Whiskyland, 1st Fill Sherry Butt, 240b): nose: once past manure and smashed prunes, this is akin to a stroll in the woods aisle of a large DIY store. So much dark woods and oily ones of all kinds, teak oil and lacquers! Pull the glass further away, come back to it, and it is exactly the same succession: a punch of manure, intense soaked prunes and dried figs, then fragrant wood, calming. With a bit of patience, black shoe polish ends up in the picture, oily chestnuts, a drop of cola and cigar leaves, yet wood and manure are never too far. Shaking the glass is like stepping into animal faeces in the forest; it smells of poo, but it is the excrement of a mammal with a healthy diet of grass, bark and leaves. To wash that away, one has sprayed it with cola. It has a whisper of tawed leather, in the long run. The second nose brings back the manure; for a second at least, it is close to walking into a pasture, or the farmyard of a cattle-rearing concern. Soon, and as is now expected, it morphs into dried fruits (prunes, figs), rehydrated to a point, to end in the DIY warehouse again, smelling the various woods and wood-care products. Ground sumac makes a late entrance. Very far in the back, a Bolognese ragù simmers away, caramelising a little. Mouth: it starts off drying as an Oloroso (what a surprise!), until one realises dried fruits are right there, ready to take over, chomping at the bits. It has a gentle spiciness, part cassia bark, part bay leaves. Chewing changes that dramatically: tar-black liquorice rolls invade, supported by a dollop of mentholated filling cream. Then, rubbery black shoe polish, burnt tyres and warm Chinotto join, augmented with a pinch of ginger powder. It is drier and bitterer with each sip, to a point it is hard to decide whether it is even pleasant. I mean: it is a spoonful of creosote on a pat of shoe polish. It takes a certain type to appreciate. The second sip has black-and-pink peppercorns (perhaps something for Blackpink to promote?), followed by prunes and liquorice, as if melted and blended together. There is an intense scorched-earth note and an old walnut wardrobe saturated with creosote or another such product. Retro-nasal olfaction detects something weird, between Jerusalem-artichoke cooking water and rotten wood. Finish: woah! Bold and assertive, it has a very-earthy profile, with scorched earth, shoe polish, liquorice bootlaces, black-cumin seeds soaked in hot water with raisins, pots of torched modelling paint, tar, creosote and old woods that include charred ebony. One may spot coffee grounds that have been torrefied for too long, or 100%-cocoa-content chocolate (yes, it exists: Ghirardelli makes it; probably others do too). The second gulp is big, woody, earthy and petrolic. It is now less scorched earth (even if there is still some at play), more oil-soaked earth dug with a wooden shovel. That earth is then flame-dried and becomes immensely drying and bitter. Rubber made dry and hard by years in the sun, prunes and dates so dry they are closer to stone than to fruit (watch your teeth!), gunpowder black tea and, as a bonus, rotten wood (ebony or walnut). Super interesting, but I do not think this is a good whisky. The nose is heavenly; the finish is a challenge; the palate is in the middle. 7/10