Glen Grant 14 Year (SMWS 9.224 "Harvest Hayride Happiness")

 

This year's Burns Night bottle from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") is a 14 year Glen Grant - a distillery I've only ever sampled in official bottling form, their lovely 15 year, which was full to the brim with vanilla, chocolate, coffee, pears. It was bold, and a real pleasure. So I am hoping for great things here. 

Here are the official notes: 

We found a pleasant, uplifting nose of honey, lemon drizzle cake, and dulce de leche, while one panellist recalled childhood harvest hayrides and enjoying homemade apple pie seated on burlap sacks in the pumpkin patch. The palate charted a course from sweet to sour (Lemsip, apple chews, perfumed pear, Tangfastics) to tobacco and spicy heat - cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, star anise, and chilli. The reduced nose continued the bright autumnal theme - honeycomb, marzipan, dry leaves, perfumed tobacco, rye bread and pear and apple chutney. The palate now combined chocolate with lemon, ginger, gooseberry jam, bramble cheesecake, and chewing willow twigs. 

Yes! The same sweetness I remember is all here: honey, cake, caramel. Orchard fruit. With the addition of tobacco (love it) and spices (love them). Sounds amazing. Bottled at 61.7% ABV, nicknamed "Harvest Hayride Happiness." Let's dig right in!

Nose: Wow, what a great nose! Honey, pear, day-old yellow cake with icing, caramel drizzled on a fresh tobacco leaf (!), hay, apple skins. I completely understand the name now - this really is something of  harvest hayride of happiness. It's like riding on a haybale in a wagon pulled by a tractor through an orchard. 

With a splash of water, it opens a little more and all the avalanche of baking spices from the palate appear on the nose: cinnamon and cardamom, finally! Also, a distinct toasted coconut note. Maybe sweet almonds as well. 

Mouthfeel: Medium, oily, thick. 

Palate: Follows the nose nicely: red apples and rich pears, tobacco, a million baking spices (especially ginger and star anise), hay, honey, oak, pepper. Very rich and delectable - quintessential Speyside. This reminds me much of the official 15 year bottling: rich, bold, full of body, lots of balance between orchard flavors and earth flavors. 

With a bit of water, it gets more like ginger-laced chocolate fudge. Very rich. Still apples and pears, as well. Many baking spices. Just very pleasant indeed. 

Finish: Honey and oak and pepper last a reasonable (medium-length) time on the tongue. Some tobacco bitterness. Some apple cores. 

Verdict: A big winner. Honestly, I have been getting fatigued on "bizarre young wild bottles from unknown distilleries" from SMWS lately. For every red-wine finished Auchroisk that pleases me is a too-minty Balmenach or a radical bourbon-aged Glenfarclas that needs much more time to integrate, etc. 

But not this. This is mature, filled with flavor in every angle, and the flavors are rich and good. I love that distinct pear note! I love the earthy hay and tobacco. I love the caramel and honey. It's just a wonderful whisky - I will certainly enjoy this on Burns Night this year. Highly recommended, one of the better bottles I've had in a while from SMWS. Very full and flavorful. Kudos to Glen Grant.