Glen Ord 1997 / Managers' Choice

Colour:  Cool gold with warm, orange hints in sunlight.

Nose:  A quiet, confident complexity. Slightly winey with apple stalks, pear skins and suggestions of Cuban tobacco. Later, a balance of autumnal fruit acidity with hints of orange zest and Cognac warmth. Later still, mature, drying oak: pleasantly dusty with a trace of vanilla pod.

Body:  Medium. Extraordinarily silky with water.

Palate:  Rich and warming; oily and orangey. Then clean, drying oak: smooth dark cocoa, white chocolate and orange oil; moving to aromatic cedar, new leather and hints of spirits of turpentine. Richer and cooler with water; smoother, silkier and with the merest suggestion of peat.

Finish:  Long and rounded with a loving warmth. White chocolate mousse sprinkled with orange zest and shavings of fruity south American chocolate. Later, more cedar and tobacco: the memory of a walk-in humidor.

Comment:  A fabulously refined bourbon wood experience: an exquisite balance of fresh vanilla and oaky dryness; of oily richness and orange acidity. The courteous, urbane sophistication of Glen Ord and the youthful confidence of American oak producing a truly adult whisky.