Glen Garioch 21 yo 1993/2014 (59%, Adelphi, 1st fill sherry butt, cask #774, 501 bottles)
Colour: amber. Nose: is this supposed to be a (lovely) joke? This starts like an Enmore from Guyana, so yeah, rather high-ester rum. Bananas flambéed, sugarcane, olives, liquorice… And you would have thought this would have gone away, but not so, not so. Also pencil shavings and chocolate! What’s the recipe? With water: nice gamy notes, pemmican, tobacco… But those are to be found in good rum as well. Mouth (neat): no, it’s well whisky, but it’s not void of any sugarcane-y notes. Chocolate, a lot of marmalade (both orange and lemon), candy sugar… Now while the minerality’s not obvious, the very zesty, lemony profile does come through well and loud. Forgot to say, this is goody good. With water: a touch of ginger, and indeed minerals, clay, gravel, whatever. Plus bitter oranges. Finish: long, peppery, gingery, and orangey. Comments: another excellent one. I still prefer the ‘natural’ ones, but yeah, this is excellent – if a little controversial at times. SGP:551 - 86 points.