I wish I’d published this Glen Grant 18 Years review before it was named the second best whisky in the world by Jim Murray. It’s always tough when you publish these after because it’s either perceived as either buying into the hype or taking it down a peg. There’s no way to win in these situations, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say I wrote this about 3 weeks ago and it’s been sitting in the queue.
In the Distillery’s words: Glen Grant 18 Years
“This unrivalled single malt matures for at least 18 years in the highest quality, handpicked oak casks, which creates a radiant golden color and seductive floral and oaky aroma.
Deeply layered and complex, this rich and vibrant whisky delivers beautifully intricate flavours of malted caramel, vanilla, and raisins and lingers with a long, sweet, and pleasantly spicy finish.”
On a personal esthetic note I don’t care for the new bottle and label design. Aspects of it echos current Macallan design which is “a tremendously popular spirit among Millennials” and it feels like that’s the same demo Glen Grant is going for with this new look. To me it feels a little sterile; a little homogenized.
The old bottles had a sense of history and it felt like you were pouring a SCOTCH when you held the bottle. That sense of history and tradition is something that drew me whisk(e)y in the first place and I don’t get that feeling in the new design.
Though as we all know it’s not about the packaging, it’s about the liquid. So let’s see if the distillery’s words hold up and dive into the Glen Grant 18 Years review below.
Glen Grant 18 Info
Region: Speyside, Scotland
Distiller: Glen Grant
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Cask: ex-Bourbon
Age: 18 Years
ABV: 43%
Price: $140*
Glen Grant 18 Review
EYE
Honey
NOSE
It’s light and fruity like you’d expect from a low-proof Speyside, but it manages to pull out a decent character with notes of apple sauce, honey, malt, almonds, graham cracker and a bit of cider spice. It’s crisp in its delivery.
PALATE
More dynamic than the aroma, the palate delivers notes of malt, complex fruit, honey, Nilla Wafers, almonds and light bits of spice, cocoa and buttery toffee. It still comes across a bit light, but it’s a vast improvement over the GG12.
FINISH
Medium finish of buttery toffee, fruit, graham and tootsie rolls that fades to an alkaline minerality.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Good sense of balance, medium body and a soft silken feel.
OVERALL
The taste of the Glen Grant 18 Years is the best part of the whisky and if the nose and palate delivered at that same level it’d be ringing in around a B+ for me. The overarching character of the whisky is light, fruity and comes across the senses crisply, cleanly and feels like a whisky that doesn’t like to get its hands dirty – but it should. It’s definitely an improvement over the 12-year-old, but it needs something to help balance out the sweetness a bit.
I’d like to try the Glen Grant 18 Years at least 3% higher and in a non-chill filtered format. 18-year-old+ whisky is harder and harder to come by and at the prices they’re being released at I think it’s the least these companies could do. Even if it kicks up the price another $10 per bottle it’s worth it to showcase the spirit in this way.
SCORE: 86/100 (B)
*Disclosure: This Glen Grant 18 Years was graciously sent to me by the company for the purposes of this review. The views, opinions, and tasting notes are 100% my own.