Distillery/Brand: Glengoyne | Region: Highland | ABV: 58.7% | Colour: Full Gold
Nose: 23 | Palate: 22 | Finish: 22 | Balance: 22
Strength: 25 | Variety: 22 | Quality: 21 | Harmony: 22
Final Score: 89

Review
I may have mentioned this before but Glengoyne was one of my very first purchases when I started discovering single malts. Luckily for me it was the 21 year old that I was getting flogged.

I remember having a taste and thinking ‘Bloody hell! What have I been missing all these years?’ That bottle was soon gone and I picked up another for a rainy day.

Since then Glengoyne has been quite a dependable distillery for me. They mature everything in sherry and I have to give them props for the way they source their casks.

They cut down oak trees in Spain and make their own casks which are then dumped with Oloroso. Twenty eight months later, after emptying out the sherry, the casks are then shipped to the Highlands for use at Glengoyne.

This NAS cask strength replaces the earlier 10 year old cask strength version. It is a blend of first and re-fill sherry casks bottled at 58.7%. My sample is from a brand new bottle.

Nose: Damp earth. Wet autumn leaves. Bitter chocolate. Spicy oak. Red wine tannins. Black pepper. Cinnamons. Dates. Dark plums. Gets crisp over time. The dampness goes and settles into something floral and a touch spicy. Like sandalwood. And nutmeg. 23/25

Palate: Full bodied mouth feel. Cinnamon. Heavy chocolate. Oak. Tannins. Dark plums. Bitter chocolate. Gets quite savory mid-palate. Cocoa beans. Quite an aggressive attack without being nasty. 22/25

Finish: Long. Oily. Cinnamon. 22/25

Balance: 22/25

Strength: Full marks for strength as it comes at you all guns blazing. 25/25

Variety: The Oloroso brings a nice bouquet of flavors but could have done more. 21/25

Quality: Some rough edges. Not a lot, though. But there. 21/25

Harmony: Works well with all the flavors. 22/25

Rating: 89