The Glenlivet Spectra Whiskey Gift Set, 3x20cl

Product Information

Taste: Dual herbal and sweet layers run together side by side. On one hand is the cinnamon, heated butter, brown sugar, and milk chocolate. On the other is the basil, rosemary, mint, liquorice, and cherry Tylenol. They complement each other nicely. Palate: Also very ripely fruited, with ripe pears and peaches and more pineapple building to a creamy, pleasantly buttery mid-palate. The finish is dry, oaky, and nutty, with a touch of bitter almond giving structure to a gentle afterglow of warm vanilla. To me, this is very much in Glenlivet’s wheelhouse, and it’s a style they’ve really perfected. Bottle no.2 was unveiled by Minenhle Radebe, the distillery’s ambassador in South Africa, which has been made from The Glenlivet’s 12-year-old ex-peat. It means that a European and American Oak cask has been used to mature it, but it has been finished in an American oak cask that has peated notes. Nose: Sweet and lushly fruity, with lifted notes of peaches, fresh pineapple, vanilla bean, and cake batter embedded in robust oak. Almond extract adds a creamy richness.

How this particular boxed set works is that a “bespoke digital experience that transports whisky lovers into a multi-sensory world, allowing them to explore their own palate and personally interpret the elusive tasting notes of each expression.” To this end “whisky drinkers will be given cryptic hints and challenged to put their tasting abilities to the test as they seek to determine what flavour profiles make each bottle unique. At the end of each tasting, users are given a personalised scorecard showing how close they are to decoding each of the three mysterious single malts.” Alan Winchester, Master Distiller at The Glenlivet, said: “True to our tradition-breaking spirit, we created an innovative whisky tasting experience across three single malts. Stretching our signature house style into three different single malt whiskies that work together as a collection was a unique challenge.

After a one-year wait, it was the moment that fans of The Glenlivet Spectra had been waiting for – the grand reveal of what lies within in the three 20cl bottles, which has left people, including The Glenlivet’s own team, guessing and hypothesising during the past twelve months.

We don’t have any information about the whiskies themselves, but they have been deliberately created to be very different-tasting whiskies while still all being Glenlivet. Palate: Very sweet, almost candied, with a softly oily texture and sensation of richness without much weight. There’s some light cinnamon candy, orange peel, and underripe pineapple fading to a warming, sugary, gently acidic finish. It’s a fun textural experience, but I’m left wishing for a little more flavor.

As we’ve seen before, The Glenlivet isn’t afraid to have some fun with its whiskies. The last few years have seen the release of each of its Alpha, Cipher, and Code expressions, which were released ‘blind’ – that is, without any cask information or tasting notes. People were encouraged to use their senses fully and try to unravel the mystery themselves, with Master Distiller Alan Winchester standing by to drop hints and help answer questions. Simon Wittenberg takes a look at The Glenlivet’s new limited trio of single malt Scotch whiskies that leaves people guessing…

In short: mission accomplished – these are all definitely Glenlivet, but they are all very much their own drams. From zingy to smoky to rich and toffee-laden, it’s a demonstration that with a few tweaks here and there in the whisky-making process can lead to a very different end result. Nose: Vanilla toffee with a hint of mint to start. Soft spice builds with fudge and leafy hints. Creamy apple, orange, peach and spongecake follow. Whiskybase B.V. (“Whiskybase”, “we” or “us”, company details below) offers a whisky enthusiasts online platform that provides its members access to the most comprehensive, transparent and trusted resource of whisky bottles and allows and stimulates its members to contribute information about whisky bottles to the platform (“Service”). In just two years after the act, the number of licensed distilleries doubled and legal whisky production rose from two million to six million gallons a year. Glenlivet was so prestigious that it gave its name to the whole region, now known as Speyside. To help preserve his brand, George Smith’s son, John Gordon Smith, applied for sole rights to the name, which were granted in 1884 but allowed other producers to hyphenate it with their own names eg. Glenfarclas-Glenlivet, which is still seen today, though very rarely. Which is why the original is known grandly as THE Glenlivet to differentiate itself from all those hyphenated Glenlivets.

Glenlivet made a different style of whisky to that which was current in the region, producing a lighter fruitier new make, something that has continued to this day. The whisky was such a success that he built another distillery in 1850 at Delnabo which never really functioned properly due to problems with the water supply. There were further problems when the original distillery burned down in 1858, something of a perennial problem in the whisky business. In 1859, he opened a new distillery near Ballindalloch where it remains to this day. Nose: Rancid butter, but in a good way! Very fatty, but also accompanied by mineral sea air along with a teasing hint of lemon peel. Whiskybase B.V. is the Dutch private limited liability company, having its statutory seat in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and its office at Zwaanshals 530, 3035 KS Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Whiskybase B.V. is registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce under no. 52072819. Taste: Ventures more into liquorice, twizzlers, and caramel, rather than fruit here. Nice little tamarind bitterness on the finish too. These were namely Alpha, Cipher, Code and Enigma (a US exclusive), bottles that occasionally go up for sale with the main online whisky auction houses.Why the name “Spectra” (which sounds like the name of a movie)? Well, we can only suppose it’s because this trio of mystery Scotch whiskies invites consumers to explore a wide “spectrum” of flavours through an immersive tasting experience. Each expression is a reinterpretation of The Glenlivet’s signature smooth and fruity house style and is released without any hint of what’s inside. Overall: There is no reason for the Scotch Whisky Association to worry if tequila cask matured whisky is going to taste like this. 7 Overall: If it was up to me, this would be #1 or 2 in the series. It’s soft and nice enough, but feels like a downgraded version of Glenlivet’s amazing 18 year old. 7

Nose: A pronounced yet not overpowering smoky aroma rises from the glass, hinting at asphalt and petrichor. Up close, there’s a toasty, salty smoke character underpinned by vanilla bean and grilled pineapple. Normally when we write about new releases from well-known distilleries, it’s all about the cask. Our customers want to know as much as possible about how their whisky has been aged: Were the casks first fill or refill? Were they made with European or American oak? What did the casks hold before? Bourbon? Rum? Marsala? Sherry? What kind of sherry? From which bodega? Were they recharred? And most importantly, how long did the whisky spend in barrel? Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. The hint given to drinkers of this expression, which has a light golden hue, was “Whisky touched by flames”, suggesting a smoky characteristic. This is a 12-year-old whisky aged in double charred barrels. This means that the whisky was fully finished in double charred casks, barrels there were freshly emptied and re-charred immediately to create a deep, rich character.

Whisky reviews for Glenlivet Bottle 2

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