Glentauchers – 19 Year Old Decadent Drams v02 & v05 (2024) (70cl, 57.1%)

This is a 19 year old Glentauchers from Speyside, bottled at 57.1% ABV in a run of 138 bottles. It is a vatting of a 2002 first fill barrel and a 2005 first fill sherry butt, with the barrel emptied into the butt nearly two years before bottling. Half of that mix had already been bottled as a separate edition a year earlier, and this is the remainder. The extra year in the butt, with plenty of headspace, gave a richly sherried whisky. The nose brings quince, Mirabelle, damsons and marmalade over waxes, spices and exotic fruit teas. The palate has treacle, fruit cake and honeycomb, with a leathery, earthy note, and the finish is long, with bread, chocolate, honey, leather and wax.