Monday, October 10, 2011

Glenlivet Faemussach - Monday, October 10th

Knowing whisky (or beverage) people is a funny thing for a variety of reasons. I would be flat out lying if I didn't say that, at one point, I had a drunken argument about the merits of a protein rest during brewing and the viability of cask reuse-age for whisky. It's things like this that eventually come up in conversation, either alcohol induced or otherwise. Talking shop is one of the most rewarding things about this job. Well, almost.

I'd have to say the most is the fact that most booze and cocktail people have fantastically stocked bar backs in their home and they are more than willing to share. They'll trade regional product for regional product, swap homemade bitters for falernum, surprise you with a snort of old cognac in the mail or maybe a cocktail book they found at a yard sale. We share what we've got. And this is how I got a small sample of the Faemussach.

Glenlivet Faemussach is a 13 year old, cask strength Glenlivet. I got my sample from a friend that works at Royal Mile whiskies. It came in this bottle:


Yep, that's right. An old Duncan Taylor sample bottle. You get used to seeing stuff like this. Recycling is key. Smart booze people save all of their mini bottles and sample glass so that they can pass on stuff to other people. Oddly enough, this is a second hand sample. This sample, in turn, came from ANOTHER person (or people) who got a bottle of it as a present. That would be the Edinburgh Whisky Blog. Yeah, booze gets passed around in the community.

And I likes it.

Anyway, here she is in all of her golden glory:



I think it's straight from the cask, unchillfiltered, uncolored, and at a hefty 59.1% ABV. And it's so good. Here's the notes:

Nose: Orange marmalade. Pine needles. Milk chocolate. No peat at all, despite the fact that it's named after a peat field. Some sawdust / new wood. Grassy and floral like a spring field. Very cracking nose on this one.

Taste: Lots of oranges and cream. It's almost like a creamsicle. Clover honey. A bite of wood towards the end develops into some spice. Slightly salty too. Peat is so faint over the explosion of sweetness and fruit on top of it. The wood on the finish is nice. It's almost like buttered oak.

This is a -fantastic- dram. I don't have much of it left but I'll be sure to savor it. Unfortunately, you can't get any unless you're super cool and Pernod Ricard loves you. Well, loved you. They gave away all the bottles they had, I believe.  They release a new one each year with a different name and no release is ever the same. Which makes me even sadder. That Duncan Taylor bottle is frighteningly low but I'll be hoarding that like a dragon. Sadly, I won't be sharing it, booze nerds. Sorry.


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