Quick Dram : G&M Glenburgie 10 yo

Today i am going to review a dram from a distillery which is not very well-known i believe (Not to me anyways) : Glenburgie.  The Glenburgie distillery is located at Alves, Near Forres, Morayshire (Speyside district). The distillery was founded in 1829 under a different name (Kilnflat) and currently is owned by Pernod Richard. Glenburgie boasts 6 stills (3 wash and 3 spirit) and did also produce malt under the name of ‘GlenCraig’   by using two ‘Lomond’ stills which were installed there in 1958. In 1981 the Lomond stills were removed to make room for two additional ‘regular’ stills, and the Glencraig expressions were then discontinued.

In 2003 the old distillery was demolished making room for a brand new construction, and in 2004 the works were finished. In 2005 Pernod Richard became the owners of Glenburgie, and the following year two new stills were added to the distillery bringing it to a total of 6 and capacity to 2,800,000 litres.

The Glenburgie malt is not very well-known since most of it goes into blends two of the better known are Ballentine’s and Old Smuggler.

I approached the tasting with very little knowledge of the distillery style, and no prejudice , as i tried not to google any previous tasting notes before actually approaching the malt. I did have a very small sample of 20cl, so i did not have a chance to sample it more than twice the same evening. well, here goes:

G&M, Glenburgie, 10y, 40% ABV, £24 (buy here)

Color : golden dark  oak

Nose: starts sweet, honey, fruit salad (prunes,dates,sultanas dipped in honey and liquor) some faint rubbery notes of new rubber, but not the regular Islay rubber. more of a sweet rubber note which is quite pleasant.

Palate: The palate is not as sweet as the nose suggest, the sultanas are there for sure, with the slight rubbery nose is now coming on the 2nd wave of sensation.Not very complex, yet nice. The palate is not as lovely as the nose here. I did expect more of it.

Finish: Rather long and  not un-pleasant with some off notes i cant really put my finger on.

Summing it all up:

This was my first Glenburgie and i am not very impressed. It’s not a bad malt, but i didn’t find it very exciting either. The nose was actually quite good, and the palate is not in par with it. All in all, a decent malt, but I’ve had better.

Not many reviews out there by other blogs/sites.

Serge of WhiskyFun didn’t quite care for it with a 70 mark, and Keith of the WhiskyEmporium liked it a bit more , but didn’t like some off-putting tarmac notes on the finish.

Not very recommended i am afraid, as there are many other nicer Speysiders out there.

Thanks to K for this wee sample and the opportunity to sample the malt of this lesser known distillery to me.

Slainte!


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