Glenesk 31 Years Old Cooper's Choice Cask:4677 49.5% 1984

Professionele reviews

Serge Valentin (89)

Bourbon instead of refill butt this time. Colour: white wine (after 31 years!) Nose: this one noses almost like a Lowlander, and a beautiful one. It’s all ripe apples, freshly mown lawn, barley, and candle wax, then mashed potatoes and ‘visiting a working distillery’. Mash tun, porridge… Mouth: fab natural maltiness. Always a thrill. Barley, sweet apples, muesli, light honey, Weetabix, kougelhopf (Kugelhopf if you’re German) and drops of agave syrup. There’s an elegance and a complexity that only time can bring to whisky (who said I’m waffling on?) Hints of homemade limoncello add some vivacity. Finish: medium, clean, zesty and waxy. So, quite wonderful. Comments: blimey, I had thought I had found my favourite Glen Esk ever just a few days ago, and there’s already a new one!

Words of Whisky (88)

whiskynotes:Nose: starting on a basket of discrete orchard fruits. Yellow apples, peaches and greengages. Hints of honey and barley sugar. Light vanilla, grasses and a touch of yellow flowers too. Maybe not spectacular, but nice enough, and there’s a very nice waxy, oily side which brings it close to the Clynelish profile. Mouth: more interesting. There’s still this combination of garden fruits (apples, white peach, a little melon) and interesting waxy / paraffin-like notes. Moves towards grassy / resinous notes and tobacco, even lightly peaty notes (or something similar), never loosing sweet citrusy undertones. Nice. Finish: medium long, slightly bittersweet, always with this Clynelish fruity-grassy touch.
All good, a kind of oldskool fruitiness. It’s mostly this Clynelish-esk je-ne-sais-quoi that I like in this Glenesk. Hands down the best Glenesk I’ve tried, ha!