Glen Garioch 1975 Coilltean Samaroli 57% vs Glen Garioch 18 1978 / 1997 #4768, 10601-5, 10950-4 59.4%
Glen Garioch 1975 Coilltean Samaroli 57%
Immensely peaty with abyssal depth. Thin smoke from burning grass, dried leaves, mossy branches and roots, straw, on what must be a bed of hot flints and stones cracking in the heat. An acrid white smoke on a sea bed of minerals. Narrow and sharp, someone’s burnt salted lemons. Menthol, mustard and peppermint tincture. The peat is guttural, rough hewn and dripping in a sludge of tar and blackest engine oil, then dusted in coal dust for a perfect phenolic bonbon that only whisky drinkers will understand. This is an impeccable example of an austere but heavy peat style of whisky. 94 pts
Glen Garioch 18 1978 / 1997 #4768, 10601-5, 10950-4 59.4%
Immediately wider and softer in style. Yellow notes of apricot jam, some sort of honey and eucalyptus throat pastille, in fact quite hot and mentholated as it develops. Light tobacco, plaster, suede and leather creme. Just all round less peaty, less sharp, less smoky and less mineral. Though the phenols remain very evident. Minerals on the tongue but the blazing sharp whites are gone, instead it’s Riesling and hot clay. Smoke emanates from dying embers nestled in coal ash, warming the chill still of the night. 90 pts
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