Glen Garioch 1999 Vintage Sherry Cask Whisky Review!

13-years old, fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks, and bottled at cask strength. That's a solid spec sheet, but as much as I'm a fan of Glen Garioch in general, experiences with this distillery may (will) vary... Let's see how this one goes!

Beam Suntory's Glen Garioch (pronounced "Glen-geery") Distillery has been getting more attention than usual lately, although the usual level of attention is precisely zero attention. It does seem like the Japanese corporate owners have glanced in the distillery's direction in Old Meldrum in Aberdeenshire near the east coast, and remembered that they owned the place. After they purchased Glen Garioch from Morrison Bowmore Distillers in 1994, along with Bowmore and Auchentoshan, they soon closed the site down and wasted no time in changing the distillery's direction towards production of blend filler, mainly supplying the company's blended whisky brands. Glen Garioch's three pot stills were then converted from direct-fired heating to indirect steam coil heating. Next they decommissioned the distillery's floor maltings, switching to 100% externally-sourced commercial malted barley, which since the distillery re-opened in 1997 has been entirely unpeated. In mid-2021 though Beam Suntory seemed to have a change of heart, announcing that they were investing over 6-million pounds in the distillery. There seems to be renewed emphasis on Glen Garioch as a single malt brand, geared towards spirit quality and flavour rather than production volumes and efficiency. In the 18-months or so since that surprising announcement, not only have they reinstated the distillery's floor maltings, joining the likes of Islay's Laphroaig & Bowmore in the Beam Suntory portfolio of floor malting, but they also installed a direct-fired wash still! This may seem like a minor change, but it's actually quite significant and is all about getting more flavour & character into the spirit. Among other changes direct-firing means more heat at the base of the still and more temperature variance in different parts of the still, creating what's known as a maillard reaction, giving toasted and/or slightly burnt flavours in the wash. These flavour differences are more pronounced in the first (wash) distillation rather than the second (spirit) distillation, so as with Springbank and a few other distilleries the spirit still/s retain indirect heating via steam coils. Obviously we won't see the results of the new processes for a few years yet, but it's still rather exciting, and certainly a bit of a surprise. 

Official bottlings of Glen Garioch are a very rare sight on Australian shores. Beam Suntory's distribution arrangement with Coca Cola Amatil (CCA) means that we're basically starved of anything outside of the box, including Laphroaig's 10-year old Cask Strength and Cairdeas releases, anything decent from Bowmore, and basically no Glen Garioch whatsoever. The local operation only seems interested in moving huge volumes of entry-level Jim Beam bourbon (at 37.0% ABV no less) and pre-mix / RTD cans of bourbon & cola, while occasionally raking in the profits with overpriced and overhyped Japanese products. Australia's growing whisky scene and the masses single malt fans are seemingly ignored under this arrangement, to the frustration of many including some of the company's local employees. But now Beam Suntory's distribution arrangement with CCA is coming to an end in June 2025, when the Japanese giant will take over all local production and distribution themselves, branded as Suntory Oceania. It remains to be seen whether this major change will improve the local situation with their portfolio of single malts, but we can only hope! For the moment, if any of the higher strength official bottlings of Glen Garioch do make it here it's generally by way of parallel import where a retailer bypasses the official local importer and brings the stock into the country themselves. This parallel importing also happens with the likes of Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength and Cairdeas and any decent Bowmores (i.e. not the core range bottlings), but since Glen Garioch is far less known and far less popular in comparison the retail pricing tends to be lower than those. 

In the case of this particular Glen Garioch, said retailer was able to sell it for $160 AUD, which is very reasonable for a cask strength sherry cask official bottling from any distillery, particularly one aged in the teens. The line-up of official Glen Gariochs is a little convoluted, but essentially the NAS Founder's Choice is the entry-level single malt, followed by the 12-year old flagship bottling. These are both bottled at 48% ABV and are non-chill filtered, but as is Beam Suntory's standard operational procedure for their single malts, both are artificially coloured. From there we go to the Renaissance series which tend to be red wine cask influenced, and then to a number of Vintage releases that seem to be sporadic, including this one. This 1999 Vintage release is from Batch 30, and was bottled back in 2013 - it only arrived at said Australian retailer in early 2023 though, so wherever it originally came from it clearly didn't sell very well. These Vintage releases tend to be either sherry cask matured or bourbon cask matured, in this case fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks - presumably both first-fill and refill, since that's not specified. Supposedly it's a small batch bottling, but we don't know how many bottles were in said small batch. As mentioned above Glen Garioch's flavour profile can vary quite dramatically, in general it's quite a thick, full-bodied whisky, but there can be sulphur issues when sherry or wine casks are involved, and often some spirit heat as well. In my experience the standard 12-year old is the most dependable in the line-up of official bottlings, but some independents can be rather tasty. This one will of course be a sherry bomb and it's cask strength, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes. No time like the present!

Glen Garioch 1999 Vintage, Batch 30, bottled 2013. 56.3%. Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Distilled 1999, fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks (presumably first-fill and refill), bottled 2013. Non-chill filtered, colouring unknown (possibly e150). 

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Still a little raw & nippy, and this bottle has been open for a long time! Christmas pudding, treacle toffee, roasted walnuts, black cherries, and a bit of rubber. Some marzipan and vanilla fudge around the edges. Plum jam & dried orange, crystallised ginger, and a touch of black coffee. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, well sherried, but a little flat too. Still quite hot & rough. 

Taste: More walnuts, black cherries, and crystallised ginger. That rough & spiky spirit heat is annoying. Getting past that there's some sticky date pudding with dark & thick toffee sauce, dried orange, and vanilla fudge. Turns astringent (drying) once that heat has subsided, red chilli flakes. 

Finish: Short-medium length. Still astringent & rough. Dried fruit, Christmas cake spices, marzipan, and vanilla fudge again. Maybe a slight touch of the rubber note from the nose, but it's better hidden. 

Score: 2.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Once you get past that annoying & distracting heat - that spiky roughness that could only come from an off batch or batches of spirit - it's an enjoyable "sherry bomb" of a Glen Garioch with plenty of cask influence. Or rather, if you can get past that heat. Even 13-years in active sherry casks couldn't overcome it. I've had significantly younger whiskies at much higher strengths that didn't have this problem. Still, sherry cask fans will like this one, at least with a dose of water added - but don't expect that to fix it completely. Some of these youngish sherry cask-driven whiskies are often like this; Tamdhu Batch Strength, some more recent batches of Aberlour A'Bunadh, and some of the older batches of Glendronach's NAS Cask Strength come to mind. Sherry cask influence yes, enjoyable flavour yes, and reasonable pricing yes - but not you anymore Aberlour, sit down. But hot & rushed spirit, also yes. Sometimes water makes that go away, sometimes it helps, and sometimes it doesn't. Which is a shame. I've had significantly better Glen Gariochs! Let's hope the new production regimen at the distillery - and the slower distillation that comes with that direct fired still - helps to stop these variations in spirit quality. 

Cheers!