Best of The Whisky Advent Calendar

I’m delinquent in summarizing my favorites from The Whiskey Advent Calendar. Here are my top 5:

  1. Master of Malt 50 Year Old Speyside (3rd Edition)
  2. Glenfarclas 1981 Family Cask Release V
  3. Glenfarclas 105
  4. Glenkinchie 20 Year Old (2010 Release)
  5. MacAllan 10 Year Fine Oak

The only affordable offering is the MacAllan, but I may spring for the Glenfarclas 105 at some point as well.

Glenkinchie 20 Year Old (2010 Release)

Lowland Single Malt, 20 Years,
55.1% ABV, $185

Wonderful honey, apricot and creamy vanilla aroma… perhaps sweet flowers as well, like Azalea… the most pleasant so far. The taste is powerful and lingers for a good minute plus. Lots of citrus – orange and lemon – along with a salty sweet vanilla that turns into a salty leathery honey. The peppery burn arrives after the citrus and remains as it fades along with the leathery honey. They call this a lady’s whisky, but I can only imagine her with a name like Bertha because this one is pretty tough. I mean that it’s definitely not feminine. A bit of water starts to release spices – ginger, pepper and a feint sage – and the citrus is toned down significantly. It becomes a lightly salted blend of citrus, banana, peach and finishes with leathery banana and vanilla. This is definitely an enjoyable drink and my first Lowland Scotch Whisky.

Glenkinchie 20 2010 Bottling Note:

The 2010 special release from Lowland distillery Glenkinchie. Fruity, smooth and luxurious. A lady-whisky if ever we saw one.

Finally, here is the link to this offering at Master of Malt.