Glenfiddich (18 year)

Now, as my loyal readers will surely remember, I posted a rather uncomplimentary review of Glenfiddich 12 awhile ago, and got flamed for it. Let the record show that I was not (and am not now) dismissing the entire distillery of Glenfiddich. This 18 year-old is quite good, as you can see from my review below. I stand by my Glenfiddich 12 review – I think it’s simply not as good as The Glenlivet 12 (which is more or less the same price), and doesn’t hold a candle to many of the malts available for $5 or $10 more. The 18, however, especially at the fantastic price of $44 that I found recently at Costco in Folsom, CA, is quite good, and I would definitely get another bottle at this price.

I’m a big believer in thrift, and I think that a whisky tastes better if it was obtained for a better-than-average price. In the same way, I have a lot of respect for whisky brands that buck the trend and offer high-quality products for reasonable amounts of money. The now-common industry practice of slapping a clever name on a single-barrel of 11 year old product or a vatting of warehouse leftovers and selling it for $100+ just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and lowers my respect for that company. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found Glenfiddich 18 for $44 at my local Costco. No matter how you slice it, it’s expensive to age any amount of single malt for 18 years, so go Glenfiddich! This one has been aged in a combination of Oloroso sherry casks and bourbon casks. The malt was then vatted and married in small batches in oak tuns. My tasting notes follow.

Nose: A grainy nose tickle, with a punch of alcohol behind it. This resolves (especially with a little time resting in the glass) into honeycomb and dried apricot. Cold baklava and cherry syrup, with a hint of orange sherbet. A little green grass or herbal tinge – surprising after 18 years in the cask! The wood is not pronounced, although there is a telltale whiff of sherry. A dash of water wakes up this slumbering beauty, and the fiery nose intensifies. Along with it come firm red stone fruits, sour green plums, and raspberry jam.

Body: Medium and mouth-filling, but not particularly full or oily.

Palate: A nutty fieryness upfront. Hazelnuts and pecans. A thin layer of jammy fruits and red currants. Malty cereal and orange-blossom honey. The dash of water releases some younger fruit notes, like the aforementioned raspberry jam and green plum. In fact, with the hazelnuts and cereal, there is a suggestion of nut butter-and-jelly sandwiches. Awesome!

Finish: Medium-length and warming. More nuttiness in the throat – the hazelnuts particularly. The added water yields a longer back-of-the-tongue finish, with a ghost of strawberry hard candies.

The delectable hazelnut and honey flavors are many-layered, and are supported by an elegant, smooth-but-fiery sweet malty character. The sherry is definitely in the background. I wouldn’t call this well-balanced, but as the dominant nuttiness is so tasty, I definitely recommend it, especially if you can find a deal.

ScotchNoob™ Mark:

About The Distillery

Glenfiddich needs little introduction. One of the most prevalent single malt Scotches available in the US, the baseline 12-year can be found in drug stores, supermarkets, liquor shops, bars, and restaurants across America. In fact, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet are probably the only two single malts that many Americans would recognize by name. In 1963, William Grant & Sons company set aside casks of Glenfiddich whisky with plans to market it as a single malt. Single malts were, at the time, exclusively the domain of independent bottlers, and were not widely available outside of specialty wine & spirits retailers. This move started the industry (which soon followed suit) down the path of official distillery bottlings of single malt whisky, and is largely the reason today’s whisky industry is so diverse. Located in Dufftown, in Speyside. Glenfiddich means “The Valley of The Deer” and refers to the field on which the distillery is sited – it also explains the image of a deer on the label. The entire production, from malting to bottling, is done on-site, which is very rare for a distillery. Craft Campbeltown distiller Springbank may be the only other one. Glenfiddich even has its own cooperage. Open mash tuns and Douglas-fir washbacks are used in distillation, and the water flows from Robbie Dubh spring, which rises from the granite Conval Hills. With 29 stills making 10 million litres of whisky a year, it’s no surprise that 33% of the world’s malt whisky sales are Glenfiddich. Even if you don’t appreciate the “mass-market” aspect of their whiskies, you have to appreciate the industry revolution set in motion by William Grant a half-century ago, and the powerhouse brand that he built.

Glenfiddich (18 year)

43% ABV

ScotchNoob™ Mark:

Price Range: $51-$58

Acquired: (Bottle) purchased from Costco, Folsom, CA. $44