Glenfiddich Reserve Cask is a 100% sherry cask, solera, offering from Glenfiddich that’s only available in travel retail and some specialty shops around the world. It’s not something that you’ll find lounging on the shelves of your local liquor store, but it’s easy enough to get ahold of at any of the major online, overseas, liquor retailers.
In Glenfiddich’s Words: Glenfiddich Reserve Cask
“Matured in distinctive Spanish sherry casks to create a rich and mellow flavour, each individual cask is hand-selected for its flavor profile by our Malt Master, Brian Kinsman.
Once selected, casks are married in our unique Solera vat, allowing their complementary flavours to get to know each other and meld together to create a single malt of extraordinary consistency and quality.
Deliciously smooth and silky, this expression has a sweet, spicy taste and a complex flavor that develops with each sip. A truly intriguing single malt.”
And with that it’s on to the Glenfiddich Reserve Cask review!
Glenfiddich Reserve Cask Info
Region: Speyside, Scotland
Distiller: Glenfiddich
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Cask: ex-Sherry
Age: NAS
ABV: 40%
Price: $60 (Travel Retail)
Glenfiddich Reserve Cask Review
EYE
Amber
NOSE
Honied pears, earthy hay-like malt, roasted apples, caramel, cinnamon, cherries, nuts and a touch of fruit cake and a grapey underpinning. That hay-like malt comes across more prominently the more it sits and opens as does the sherry essence.
PALATE
Toffee, dark fruit, hay-like malt, honey, dried orchard fruit, nuts and a bits of cinnamon, cocoa, grapey sweetness, menthol and copper. Like the aroma, the longer this whisky sits and opens the more prominent that hay-like malt and sherry character becomes.
FINISH
Medium drop of copper, cinnamon, malty sweetness and menthol.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Well balanced, medium body and a soft gentle feel.
OVERALL
Glenfiddich Reserve Cask smells like Autumn. The palate is quite good as well, but pales in comparison to the amazing sweet and earthy aroma it puts off. I have to say it, but if this wasn’t a 40% CF whisky this would probably be amazing. Glenfiddich says this is all sherry casks, but if that’s true the color and overall delivery of this whisky suggest that it’s largely 2nd+ refill sherry butts and could really use the added proof and oils.
I don’t have anything against them doing a mostly refill sherry solera, in fact it seems to work quite well for the whisky, but I’d love to taste it in a more natural oily delivery like I got to try at the Malt Nuts Glenfiddich tasting we did a while back. That 15 year, cask strength, ex-sherry Glenfiddich was amazing. It had such a rich powerful delivery that I wanted to just sit and drink that all night. That’s what this should be.
SCORE: 87/100 (B+)