Glenrothes 12 Year, Old Malt Cask
This Single Malt of Glenrothes bottled by Old Malt Cask is the perfect example of why I don't typically purchase Speyside sherry bombs. Â They simply don't last on my shelf. Sweet, effortless to sip, and in this case, decadently sultry, echoing of every Christmas baking spice in my mother’s kitchen. It’s independently bottled Single Malts like this one that make it seem pointless to try anything out of most distilleries core lineup. Nothing in Glenrothes core even comes close to this, including their embarrassing Sherry Reserve or their newly launched 18 year. Personally, I’ve always passed up on Glenrothes mainly because of how boring their lineup is; the usual suspects including NAS expressions in ex-peated casks or Vintage & Select in conjunction with Reserve...all the meaningless marketing jargon we’ve become oversaturated with. But not this bottle of Glenrothes...
Glenrothes is known for their spicy, signature new-make spirit. It’s favored by blenders all over Scotland for this reason, and after tasting an expression like this one from The Old Malt Cask, that fact is illustrated even greater by how the spirit integrated so beautifully with the Sherry.
Glenrothes 12 Year, Old Malt Cask
ABV: 59.2% // 118.4 proof
Age: 12 yr
Vintage: 2005
Distilled: September 2005
Bottled: July 2018
Bottle: 1 of 577
Barrel: HL15048, Sherry Butt
Color: Treacle reduction
Non-chill filtered, Natural Color
Nose: Freshly baked, rich gingerbread. Muscovado sugar coated raisins, rum soaked dates & over-ripe sultanas. Touch of fresh ginger, hints of candied orange, dried raspberry, strawberry & cherry pie. Resiny allspice, cinnamon & rich Christmas spices. Sweet, creamy French vanilla & marzipan. Richly spiced & richly sweet. This could easily be from a PX butt, if not an Oloroso.
But above all else, a glass of this reminds me of my mother’s kitchen on Christmas day: decadently rich and sultry sweet.
Palate: Signature Glenrothes spice, Muscovado sugar, some butter, rich baking spices, dried cinnamon stick. Spiced, dried orange. Dense sherry. Very well integrated sherry with what I pleasantly suspect is an un-sulphured Butt. I’d have to guess Oloroso.
Finish: Long. Beautiful sherry. It doesn’t overpower the decadent spice from Glenrothes house profile, which lingers on and on through sherry. The quintessential cigar single malt.
Bourbon and House Rating: 95
This is why I don’t buy sherry bombs often. You could drink the bottle in one night with a few malt mates easily (that was sarcasm, please drink responsibly).
My father was a huge Macallan man. Loved his sultry, refined and poised Speyside single malts, specifically Macallan. He typically didn’t prefer cask strength and Glenrothes would of been a little too “spicy” for him. The reason i’m saying this is because much of what I learned about heavily sherries speysiders comes from what Macallan produced.
Macallan was my father’s go-to. Glenrothes is mine.
This won’t be the last I.B. Glenrothes I purchase and if you are a fan of the heavily sherried Macallan/Glendronach/Glenfarclas style malts, then give Glenrothes a try. In I.B. form, you will not be disappointed.
This is my first Old Malt Cask. It won’t be my last.
🥃🥃