vintage glenfiddich

we were at the local in bangsar, ordered our beers and proceeded to talk shop. across us on the wall was a glenfiddich poster that simply said, a day is a taste, a year is an appreciation.
that was the start of an evening preceeding friday the 13th.
nothing evil of course happened last night.
went for a dinner party with some close friends and during dinner, the blackberry was buzzing with a chat from the plonkwonk myplugoo plug-in on the left of the site. the guys from the glenfiddich blog were calling in to send a release on a recent vintage selection this week.
so they sent me a release with some photos and a promise of a video.
good to know this site has some interesting visitors.
anyway, have always said that glenfiddich is a great introduction to the world of single malts and have yet to be proven wrong.
and so, the chaps from glenfiddich cobbled together an international panel led by renowned malt master david stewart to select this year's bottling of the vintage reserve. they chose cask number 4414 for "its exceptionally rich and complex 31 year old glenfiddich".
they shortlisted six european oak casks that had been filled with new-make glenfiddich in 1975 or 1977 with the samples drawn. nosed, tasted and debated over three intense hours in the distillery in the scottish highlands.
the casks had been stored in the dark, damp conditions of a traditional dunnage warehouse since march 7, 1977 with head cooper don ramsay, who repaired and prepared the oloroso sherry butt (cask), and head warehouseman eric stephen , who is in charge of security, drawing the samples. the pair had been working in the distillery for more than 45 years.
speaking of names and apart from david stewart, the panel comprised his assistant brian kinsman, whisky writer gavin d. smith, whisky industry author and journalist professor walter schobert from germany, russia's scotch whisky expert erkin touzmohamedov and jimmy bradley, owner and chef of two award-winning new york restaurants - the red cat and the harrison.
"the selection panel really experienced the wide possibilities of aroma and flavour produced from one cask to the next. in our shortlist, we had two casks filled on the same day, yet they were markedly different in colour, nose and taste from each other," stewart said about the chosen cask.
he continued to speak my language further.
"having such an international panel has been a great experience, with the common language of whisky being a strong binding factor. the whisky from the six casks varied in colour from a light brown toa red hue and the flavours from a delicate citrus notes to more distinctive dried fruit and spicy sherried flavours. the selected glenfiddich has a hint of malt cereal, lemon balm, light smokiness and leather characteritics that the panel all agreed would be worthy of a glenfiddich vintage reserve," he added.
the others sung praises too.
"this was by far my favourite. it has none of the burn associated with whiskies of such strength and produced a fantastic nose that didn't dominate the whisky. the malt cereal characteristics are there which can often be hard to find with sherry butt whiskies," said erkin touzmohamedov.
gavin smith added "there is a delicate smokiness to the finish that comes upon you rather unexpectedly when you've experienced the light citrus nose to begin with."
that's that for the time being as the vintage whisky will take its time to make it to the market.
the limited edition single cask release will be restricted to approximately 450 bottles and a suggested retail price of £375 with the official malt master tasting notes and bottle strength revealed after the cask has been bottled and distributed.