The Maltman Glenrothes 25yo...

The Maltman Glenrothes 25yo (46.0%): It's a gorgeous fall Sunday here in Cambridge. It's sunny, chilly and breezy. The wind brings smells of all kinds of fallen leaves... An absolute perfect day to treat myself with a wee sample of one of my favorite Speyside distilleries... Glenrothes Distillery is owned by Edrington Group but the single malt brand is operated by London based wine and spirit merchants Berry Bros & Rudd. The distillery's huge annual capacity of 5.6 million liters serves mainly to the blends like Cutty Sark, The Famouse Grouse, Blue Hanger but the distillery bottles different vintage releases and special reserve series' every year as well. What I have today on my desk is a 25 year old single cask sample from a first fill sherry butt bottled by The Maltman. The Maltman is an independent bottling company from Glasgow owned and ran by Donald Hart and his son Andrew Hart. I liked more or less every single cask they picked to bottle in recent years and am very excited to sample three of their upcoming releases I received the samples for including this beauty. Color: Orange blossom honey, medium amber. Nose: First whiff is sulphury. Cheese brine, unstruck matches and fresh goat cheese... Let's leave it air for a couple of minutes. Here we go, all cleared up: Maltesers, milk chocolate and old school diner style vanilla shake. And those beautiful sweet hazelnut aromas I expect to get from Glenrothes all the time. Hazelnut praline spread and Hazelnut sorbet. Brown sugar, walnut liquor and halvah cake. A second layer underneath with ripe Fuji apples and aged calvados. Palate: The palate shows its age very well. Warming, silky smooth almost wooly and slightly musky... Quince paste, lemon zest jam, a lot of cinnamon and ground cloves. With just a couple drops of water I get dried strawberries and fresh spearmint leaves. Finish: Long and warming... Leaves with a never ending tingling sensation covering the back of the mouth. Overall: It's a classy dram without a doubt. Very mature, bold but not overwhelming. Glenrothes spirit ages very well even in active first fill casks and somehow keeps its vibrancy. I wonder how much a bottle will cost when released but definitely worth to check. It can be a great companion for coming winter months if I can afford. Thanks to Brad Jarvis for the official sample and Teresa Hartmann for additional tasting notes...

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