Glenfiddich 15 Year Distiller's Edition 51% abv

[Quaich1]

I opened my very first bottle of Glenfiddich 15 Year Distiller's Edition 51% abv this afternoon.

Here are my taste notes that I wrote today:

Neat-

Nose: Cherry cream, candied orange peel, Mapopo candy (made with papaya), mature spicy fruit hovers; banana split building to caramelized plantains. Vanilla meets sanding sugar with time.

Palate: Spice hit, flash of black pepper, Ethiopian bold coffee, creamy, Australian black licorice and whole eggplant cooking on gas stove top in open flame like mother used to make it..

Finish: Long, oak n' spice, dark chocolate, empeltre olives (soaked in sherry) with late mild anise and sticky lice.

Comments: This expression is a robust cask strength dram which delightfully works the Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde scenario from nose to palate. The classy nose with elegant sweet notes metamorphoses into the intense spice-peppery notes on the palate. These darker notes continue on the finish. This contrast is quite successful here IMO because of the 51%abv.

Rating: 92
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"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[opelfruit]

Big fan of this, great bang for buck whisky and in my view its the best in the core range. Dunno what half those things are but I always find the banana and tropical fruits, vanilla and spice. Definitely a lively and fruity whisky that packs a big flavour punch.

It's always in nice to see tasting notes from others that pick up the same kind of descriptors, puts faith back into ones own nose and palate
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[Alexppp]

Totally agree, the nose suggests a bigger, bolder version of Glenfiddich 12, but the palate brings a lot of unexpected things to the table. A few months ago I had it side-by-side with a Snow Phoenix and a Glenlivet Nadurra, and it easily held its own.

[sorren]

Nice notes, made me want to go pour one.. I bet you could make tap water sound delightful, wouldn't it be great if all core range whiskes came in cask strength too,

[TheWM]

Murray - this persuaded me to open a bottle I had stuck in the collection. It's a good un for sure, the earthy coffee notes are quite pronounced and I'm getting a beautiful bittersweet finish which is making me think about what's happening. Rarely do I get both in equal measures - I agree that the nose has a distinctive fiddich to it (pear drops) but everything else screams "this is what I wanted to be when I grow up" it's busy and definitely due to the higher ABV.