Glen Grant 15-year-old

Glen Grant 15, in so-called "Batch Strength", which ultimately means a little more power than his older brother. Can this plus in alcohol also score in the glass? Anyway, the dram invites you to experiment with water and at ~ 60 € per liter in summer 2020, you can't go wrong. However, I save the experiments and opt for the 18, which overall seems more harmonious and full, despite the rather modest 43% vol.!

Great balance on aroma and taste, finish only slightly lacking. Friday dram

too perfumy, too alcoholic, too sweet - a distillery worth attention for beginners? Overall a decent rank for a sweet, honey / floral / acetone bourbon; unfortunately, something about it does not suit me very much (perfumery?) 3/10 but it's worth trying and forming your own opinion

Fantastic lovely whisky. Surprising that Glen Grant is so good. Maybe those purifiers are doing something really good for the whisky. Along with first-fill bourbon casks, it's definitely a hit. It's my first Glen Grant, but certainly not the last. I will have to taste some more from this fine distillery.

[June, 2019] I can understand why so many drinkers rate Glen Grant drams rather average only (including Serge and Angus) - because Glen Grant offers a delicious but somehow unspectacular profile. It is very quaffable of an astonishing consistent quality and a good friend who is not into whisky (yet) asked me how to describe the different distillery profiles to non-aficionados. Because he loves classical music I thought it might be a good idea to compare distilleries with the different styles of the most famous composers of the past... ...in which case I would assign Glen Grant to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Always easy and a pleasure to enjoy with a very dependable high entertainment quality that suits almost all audiences but lacks the "wow-effects" others built into their work. In that sense an excellent point to start exploring single malt whisky (resp. classical music). This dram shows the Mozart profile par excellence. It is a subtle and complex composition of the typical Glen Grant trademark flavours that is very enjoyable but if you ask "What is special about it?" I will answer "Nothing, and exactly that is great (to me)". By the way: I neither started with Glen Grant in whisky nor with Mozart in music but with Bowmore and Tchaikovsky respectively - which is a perfect match too.

quite disappointed ;( 21/20.5/20/20.5

Having opened my 1 litre bottle out of curiosity after Ralfy's not very flattering take on a newer edition (which is confusingly also labeled "1st Edition"), I can only conclude that there must be a good deal of batch variation around. I bought this in early 2020 (older label) and it offers a nice nose with lemon tarte, apples, muesli and honey and a very good mouthfeel with a palate of honey, cereal, lemon yoghurt, wax and a touch of sunflower oil. There is no heat whatsoever in this whisky. That said, it may well be that more recent batches are flawed, but I'm happy to report that the older version of this malt is a top notch old fashioned Speysider with a delicate yet intriguing character.

Nice whisky to drink, but Rothes Chronicles came in much better despite being a NAS ... There is something bitter and unpleasant in the taste and aftertaste here, but this is in comparison ... And so this is a good base malt. 22/21/21/21

The Glen Grant 15 Years Batch Strength offers seriously good value for money. No frills, just good whisky.

Glen Grant 15 yo Batch Strength 1st Ed. 1cl sample at The Whisky Show 2022. I can’t rate a whisky off such a small sample, but initial impressions: Easy going, soft fruits, a slow burn, salty. Lingering saltiness - not loads to it. OK stuff. 3.3/79

A real surprise for me. After I had made my way through a 5-cl sample over a couple of days (to make sure I wasn't imagining things), I went ahead and bought two one-liter-bottles (!) for 50 € each. An absolute no-brainer at that price.

Tasted on 11.10.2021. Nose: Bourbon notes, iodine, apples, apricots, hay Taste: Bitter almonds, salty, creamy, strong chilly kick, medium length aftertaste with peppery finish

I looked at the more mature pieces of GG. The "old" 16/2010 (43%, WB64529), which is unfortunately no longer produced, the newer almost cask strenght 15yo (50%, WB122416) sold in travel free shops and the top of the line 18yo (43%, WB99417) from the Rare edition, which Murray rated in his Whisky Bible as the bottle of the year 2019. That's an expectation, right? I also compared it with the strongest version from SV on paper, the 30-year-old WB296559, Symington's Choice. All bottles are pure bourbon maturation. Similar style (and related history) to the closed Caperdonich distillery or the populare Glenlivet. This is a light fruity variant with bright notes of tropical or orchard fruit and adding alcohol (50% is the maximum reasonable for me) or extremely long maturation times will not fundamentally change the character of the resulting distillate. The 16 is interesting because it represents the old "old school" bourbon style. Smooth, completely in contrast to the character of the harsher American/Canadian bourbons, showing how a Scotch distillate can be evolved in American barrels. Overripe peaches and a patina of bygone times (friends know that I refer to it as noble mustiness). The 15 is a little sharper, more alcohol and more angular, but still retains a fruity, easy-drinking character. There is an increasing inspiration from pear and other orchard fruits. The favored 18 is the most complex and deepest, but certainly do not expect a wood-manipulated distillate despite its mature age and any hint of a dense, fleshy body. This is simply a light whisky for summer, full of juiciness and fun. The loser of the series? Surprisingly, the oldest, on paper and at a price the strongest thirty. In any case, you must not make the mistake of not giving it time for at least 15-20 minutes in the glass. It will remain closed. If you give it time, it will show you a subtle deeper character that only connoisseurs will appreciate. If you do not drink other quality pieces from this distillery, you will not appreciate it. When most drinkers ask themselves whether they would exchange the oldest 30 for 3 bottles of 18, the answer will probably be expected. This whisky is perfectly balanced, I appreciate that Andrew Symington can also make good bourbon whiskies with his obsession with sherry maturation, but it is simply inexpressive.

Full honeyed apple oil force! Develops so nicely in the bottle that I had to give it one point more. Fantastic Grant, period.

Fruity, light, spicy, huge step up against glent grant 10 and 1 liter for around 50 eur is well worth it. Rating as one of the world best whisky according to whisky bible well exagerated but it does tick many boxes. Good whisky and for the same price I would buy again, quite easy to forget though.

Batch strength. A dense, sulfurous release with good texture and richness. 21 22 21 21

Balance (21) Overall normal whisky, a little hard to drink (84.5)

Glen Grant is always pleasantly happy. But 15 turned out to be some kind of closed, the aroma went into some kind of perfume motives .. There is no that freshness, but maybe the type is different and it shouldn't be here. To tell the truth, this release is not very much to me, that aroma that taste. This malt is not entirely clear to me.

For a 15 yo surprisingly weak and only carried by alcohol.

This is still a solid whisky that I like and the price-performance ratio for the liter bottle is still great. But compared to the other Glen Grants standards (all of which I value very much in their own way and are relatively similar, clean and beautiful), this one ranks last on my personal list of good Glen Grants standards. I can drink it very well, but the pleasure is not particularly pronounced. It is exactly between 86 and 87 points. 1st place. Glen Grant 18 First Edition 2nd place Glen Grand Cask Haven (incredibly good PLV) Place 3. Glen Grant 18th Place 4. Glen Grant 15. I have already compared the other three in detail (WB201209). Water helps in the nose, in the palate it makes it too thin. What sets it apart from the other standards that offer more bourbon aging is its weaker mouthfeel, which isn't as oily and creamy, and its honey flavors are less pronounced.

Too stubborn, very bitter. The finish is short and dry.

Where the 18-year-old ''Glen Grant'' awaits with its elegance and its finely tuned aromas, this malt comes onto the scene with significantly more presence and power. For me at least on par with the bottling three years older, maybe even a tad better, as it is more expressive. I was particularly impressed by the aftertaste, which reminds me of a slightly sweet piña colada. A very nice summer malt that is definitely worth buying again.

Second attempt

Insider tip, an understatement malt with a great price / performance ratio. Classic spicy ex-bourbon cask. Not a beginners' malt but full-bodied and well-crafted.

Nose: Chalky, ashy, fruity sweet and a bit of nutty char. Palate: Fruity, mildly smoky and oily, ashy and nutty. Finish: Long -> Sooty smoke and oil.