Glen Garioch – 31 Year Old Director's Special (70cl, 57.3%)

This is a 31 year old single cask Highland single malt from Glen Garioch, selected by Elixir Distillers for the Director's Special series of The Single Malts of Scotland. It was bottled in 2023 at a cask strength of 57.3%, without chill-filtration or added colour, in an outturn of 130 bottles of 70cl. The bottle is engraved and sealed with wax, and it comes in a wooden box with an embossed metal plaque. The nose recalls an old-fashioned ice cream parlour, with homemade milk ice cream, fruit sundae, jelly sweets, wafer cones, toasted tea cake and an ice cream float made with ginger beer. The palate is creamy and pastry-led, with ginger biscuit cheesecake, dark chocolate, candied ginger and Madagascan vanilla ice cream. Soft, crumbly lemon and ginger biscuits linger in the finish.