Whisky Cabal 8: SMWS and a couple of hangers on including Glenglassaugh

We realised some time had passed since our last (group) whisky imbibing, mainly as we are really bad at getting organised. But we made it happen, we made it real.

Glenglassaugh Revival 46%

The first whisky released from the newly restored Glenglassaugh distillery. Alec and I have followed them at Whisky Shows, and become quite addicted. Ok, very addicted.
They did bottle their first cask, but that was going for around £100, so we said no to that. But picked up the Revival, a snip at £35.
Nose: sultanas, pears, sherry, strudel, hint of sulphur
Palate: honey, warm, caramel, nutmeg, wasabi (yes, thank you Dr Death)
Finish: caramel, long, very long, warm
7.5 /10
We liked this a lot, it's a very nicely balanced whisky, you'd guess speyside, but you wouldnt guess how young it was. Basically, it all bodes very very well for them.

GO BUY IT.

SMWS 66.32 "Roly Poly Pudding" 13yo dist 1998 1/752 bottles 58.6% refill ex-sherry gouda

And back to our usual SMWS bottles, this one from the Ardmore distillery.
Nose: sherry, citrus, cookie dough, spritzic, sweet
Palate: very smooth,honey,
addition of water
Nose: burnt carbon, increase sulphur
Palate: sweet, honey, tangy
Finish: long, and builds in heat
7/10

We liked this, but it didn't thrill us, and wasn't as good as the Revival.

SMWS 39.85 "A whisky to dream about" 29yo dist 1982 1/274 bottles 57.4% refill hogshead ex-boubon
This from Linkwood. Who I've got a softspot for.

Nose: citrus, tangy, lemonade, tiramisu
Palate: lemon, citrus, tiramisu, grapefruit, lime
Finish: medium-long, honey, dry

This one split the tasting panel, admittedly we're known for disagreement, and discussions on the finer points of grading do last for hours. But as this was only whisky number 3, we weren't too split.
7.5 - 8 /10

On no account should you add water. This brought a grading of :
4/10

SMWS 39.82 "Suede shoes walking through clover" 13yo dist 1997 1/603 bottles 60% ex sherry refill butt
Look at us, vertical tasting on Linkwoods!

Nose: spritzic, burnt, coffee, pepper
Palate: cloves, pepper, nutmeg, caramel, turkish delight
Finish: long, warm
8.5/10

Addition of water produced more salt on the palate and : 5-6 /10

This one was a lucky dip by the tin-arse cabal member, he who keeps getting brilliant whiskies by random selections.

Aberlour A'bunadh Batch: 37; 59.6%; Spanish oloroso sherry butts
I threw this in to scare the crap out of the cabal.

Nose: sherry, fudge, oloroso sherry, "manly dram"
Palate: sherry monster, raisins, prunes
Finish: long, sherry
11/10
"The Nigel Tufnel : for when you need a little bit more"
"Co-op: God with food"
"Arghhhhh...."
"I've had weaker sledgehammers to the face"

Basically, £37 of extreme sherry.

SMWS 64.36 "Marshmallows in a duffle bag" 7yo 1/257 bottles 60.3% 1st fill barrel ex-bourbon
This from Mannochmore, who we have had some love towards in the past...

Nose: sweet, sherbets, 'love hearts', marshmallow
Palate: vicious bananas, fizz bombs, , pineapple
Finish: massive
addition of water
Nose: wet sheep-lanolin
Palate: parma violets

8/10
This whisky was appreciated by the panel, and was best summed up as:
"Barely legal evil whore"

SMWS 125.59 "Spun sugar on polished wood" 10yo dist 2000, 1/620 bottles, 59.7%, 2nd fill ex-sherry butt
From that little known distillery, Glenmorangie.

Nose: wood polish, heavy, full bodied   [who wrote this crap?]
Palate: smooth, warm, happiness, manuka honey
Finish: short
7/10
But we agreed it's the best Glenmorangie we'd had. None of us are fans, it's too light, too emasculated. This at least demonstrated they can make interesting whisky, even if it's then suppressed and mixed to boringness for retail.

SMWS 71.34 "Rabbit, ginger, and treacle tart" 13yo 56.8% refill gourda ex-sherry
This from the Glenburgie/Glencraig (closed) distillery.

Nose: bread and butter pudding, caramel, toast (maybe, can't quite read it), wood polish, chocolate, apricots (again, maybe), ginger, manuka honey, malt loaf, sulphur
Palate: sweet, oaky  [so how did we get so much on the nose, and write nothing on the palate?]
Finish: warm and long
Again, split the panel:
neat: 5-7/10
water: 3-4/10

Not liked by the panel. Our notes describe it as stunning on the nose, and vicious on the palate. A marmite whisky.

There we have it. We all survived.

B (on behalf of the cabal)
PS: we had the wrong SMWS code for Roly-Poly pudding, it should have been 66.32 - amended 17 Dec 2013