Glenfiddich 15 Year Our Solera Fifteen

Review #36 - Whisk(e)y #22 Aspect - oily in the glass, decent length legs, amber in colour. Nose - light nose, very approachable, almost no alcohol, sweet, honey, vanilla, some underlying spice and malt, fruity (apple, pear), sherried darker fruit, perhaps plums. Palate - sweet and spicy (but spice is very well integrated, warming), fresh fruit on the front end (apples and pears, same as on the nose), honey, cinnamon, malty on the backend, viscuous oily texture. Finish - medium, cinnamony, with a dry oaky woodiness, and some sweetness appearing again on the aftertaste, maybe with more sherry influence there, such as figs, raisins and dates, but rather faint. Overall it is a good whisky, well integrated aromas, more complexity than its younger counterpart than the glenfiddich 12, yet the sherry influence is not as strong as I have anticipated, missing the heavy raisin, figgy, date taste. It is approachable, good, but not as good or complex as I have expected to be honest. Elegant and smooth. I do not think it handles water very well in terms of complexity, but it is mellowed out, the spiciness disappears almost entirely leaving a faint cinnamon note, and as usual, amplifying the maltiness. After it gets some air, it becomes even more approachable, but slightly watery and perhaps too smooth, the aromas being quite diminished. Rating System: 5.0 - Legendary 4.5 - Exceptional 4.0 - Very Good 3.5 - Good 3.0 - Decent 2.5 - Average 2.0 - Below Average 1.5 - Barely Drinkable 1.0 - Undrinkable 0.5 - JB

Visual: Golden Amber, thin, slow-to-quick moving legs. Nosing: instant aged oak and dark fruits: namely sugared dates and prunes. Toffee and caramel follow, with vanilla on the back end. Demerara sugar and spice: cloves. Tasting: flavourful oak; sweet. Dark chocolate hits the back of throat into the nose. Faint cinnamon and cloves round out the dram. Long finish and great body; leathery and slick finish. Smooth Reduced Nosing: Holding the dram downwards and vertical below the nose and swirling releases an aroma that of a buttery carrot muffin. Much more vanilla comes through. Reduced Tasting: Lots of great vanilla and an extremely light acidity flows through. Warm and spicy. Upon opening the bottle, I wasn't impressed. But now that I've sat with this dram for a good 45 minutes really helped me to understand it better. This is a great dram and it's balanced very well. I underestimated it; once again a great dram doesn't have to be a unique dram!

Received a bottle of this in celebration of the birth of my baby. Shy at first, let it open up. As it does, salted caramel predominates. With time, I smell peach candy, star anise, honeyed barley, and cinnamon yeast donut. The palate reveals more caramel, whispers of lemon cheesecake and dried strawberries, and an over wrought grape soda note. Generally, the palate is gentle, sweetly malty. Up to this point the dram is fine, nice even. But now, the finish feels unrefined. The alcohol feels untethered from the notes of the nose and palate. Yet more caramel, warming pipe tobacco, canned pineapple, and menthol show up in the finish, though they do not coalesce pleasantly. Though the price would not suggest as much, this single malt is just okay; it can be enjoyed casually, but don’t think about it too much.

On the nose, I smell fermented fruit - very sweet orange residue, rose hips, apricots. Dark dried fruit, sloe, and Christmas spices. The taste completely follows the nose - Christmas cake, candied fruit, dried dark fruit. There is a lack of overall complexity in this whisky. There is no development and multi-layeredness of flavours, and this definitely disappointed me. Too sweet. It is simply not my whisky, I have no other explanation. 77/100 WBR.

Nose: Sherry forward with an orange zest tang and some dark fruits giving it a nice bit of depth and richness. Taste: Quite complex for a 40% whisky, spicy, dark fruits and a general sweetness, tastes like Christmas Finish: Medium length, oaky and spicy Overall, excellent sherry forward whisky and I happily come back to it fairly often.

This is my second review of this whisky. The more I drink it, the more I like it. Im adding .25 points more. It should of been bottled at 43% abv though to truly make this one excellent. The price probably wouldn’t be to much higher and I’d definitely pay more for the added depth, complexity and flair the additional abv would bring.