Last night dram of the BTC 2017 was a nasty surprise from the organizers. Nasty as who would have think of a handfill (!!!) from Glenfiddich distillery (!!!!), no less and no more! As expected, nobody managed to guess the distillery. It was a good dram and it reaffirms my belief from my two last Glenfiddich reviews (here and here) that they should stop chill filtering and bottle in higher strength.

And how did I do with my guess? I got points for region as it was clearly a Speyside offering and totally missed on the ABV. I kind of screwed up on the age guess. I felt it’s low to mid teens offering (I have witnesses for this claim!), but I over thought it and thought maybe it’s younger cask with a mature profile, so guessed too low instead of getting another 30-40 points.

Glenfiddich 15 Year Old Handfilled Batch #47 (56.9%)

Pic of a similar batch. Credit: whiskybase.com

Nose: Smooth but also hides lots of energy below the surface, honey, quite a restrained nose. Then fruitiness shows up (still somewhat muted) with pears, apricot and peaches, citrus inner (bitter) peels, bubble gum (think bazooka), cinnamon and nuts. With time fruitier.

Palate: Exploding sweet fruitiness, peaches and apricot, gentle oak spices, mint, bubble gum, white pepper, mint freshness again at the end. With water fruity and more pepper and oak spices bitterness.

Finish: Medium short finish, lingering sweet apricot, bubble gum, pepper and oak spices.

Thoughts: This is a good whisky. Wouldn’t mind a bottle of this. So far, the best whisky of the first 5 days of the competition.