I have a few friends with a very high affinity to Glen Garioch Distillery so naturally I tend to be quite up o date with the distillery (sometimes against my futile efforts to avoid it 😉 ).

But when an IB bottling of Glen Garioch is imported and is available locally, you can’t really avoid noticing and tasting it, and this was my fate with this Glen Garioch 2011 8 Year Old bottled by Asta Morris.

While it’s a young Glen Garioch it’s not a boring whisky as it may sound. It was matured in ex-Bourbon and then finished in ex-Bielle Rum casks that Asta Morris Rum bottled under their Rasta Morris brand – so ex-Bourbon and then Agricole rum casks.

272 bottles were produced from the ex-Rum cask at 49.7%.

Glen Garioch 8 Year Old ex-Bielle Rum Finish (Asta Morris) (49.7%, €62/335NIS)

Nose: Despite the relatively low ABV there’s a good punch here, some youth and muscular nose, malty with cereals, brown sugar and that Agricole grassiness, also some pineapple. Spices with ginger (of course as it’s a Glen Garioch after all) and white pepper.

Palate: Malty, cereals, honey and brown sugar sweetness, quite spicy with ginger, nutmeg and white pepper. Then we have some pineapple juice and grapefruit juice and the white rind bitterness.

Finish: Medium length, spicy, brown sugar, pineapple juice, grapefruits and the Agricole grassiness.

Thoughts: At first it felt a bit too young and incoherent but once it settled in the glass and got a bit oxidized it blossomed nicely. The nose got some good Rum influence to balance the youth and spiciness of Glen Garioch and in the mouth it’s more spicy and fruity with a minuscule Agricole influence that makes a cameo in the finish. A lovely summertime whisky.