Jack Rose Bar Pour Review
Glen Elgin has slowly crept onto my shelf from various independent bottlers. Mostly in the 10-15 year range and nearly all from ex-bourbon casks. With Clynelish prices starting to increase, I’ve been trying to find similar styles of malt to replace my daily and warm-up drams. Glen Elgin and Daluine seem to be fitting that bill nicely. A pour from a well-aged, refill hoggie, seemed like a perfect starter for the night.
Tasting Notes
Tasted neat in a Glencairn with 20+ minutes of rest. Dilution was added for the second half of the tasting with additional rest, upwards of about 45 minutes.
The nose began with very light floral malt and expected bourbon cask influenced fruit aromas. Apple pie, pie crust, and a nice burnt sugar. Fruit orchard in bloom, dewy grasses. A pleasant heavy tobacco note comes from the oak that gives this body to balance the delicate nose. Adding water brings out a faintly expressed citrus oil aroma.
Undoubtedly first fill bourbon with more apples, pears, and lovely oak flavors. Apple cinnamon tart. Leavened dough. Wet tobacco leaves like a cigar and has a slight charcoal or barrel char smokiness to it. Wonderful baking spices of clove, cinnamon, peppercorns, and mace. Dilution brings out even more of that barrel char character leaving you with a satisfying tannic end.
Starts mildly tannic but with a good balance. There’s a salinity to the finish that I didn’t expect like applewood smoked herring. Admittedly the finish here is a bit short and unremarkable at first. Water however really brought out the fruit orchard flavors quite well. Pear and apple peels. Oak notes are more on the front of that palate now and less tannic. Unexpected grassy, floral flavors pop up. Lemongrass, earthy and slightly acidic flavors with a pleasant orange blossom water quality. The finish now lingers on your palate.
Overall
Simple and straightforward malt that does the job of setting up your palate quite well. Doesn’t overwhelm the senses and holds true to the fruity malt profile of the distillery. Delicious in its own right, but not a bottle that necessarily excites you. Delicate and unassuming at first, but digging deeper there’s a touch more complexity to be coaxed out.
I enjoyed trying a slightly older Glen Elgin and found it quite lovely. Ex-bourbon is the perfect cask for the soft nature of the malt. Looking forward to trying more and keeping a bottle on the shelf to use for future palate teasers.
