Glenglassaugh 30 Year Old

Glenglassaugh 30, 2016 Billy Walker Released..

Nose: A rich, raisiny welcome with saddle leather, salted nuts and caramel mixed up with some dried orange peel. On the second sniff there’s a bit of soy sauce as well. With time some toffee emerges to join the other notes. A few drops of water and there’s some plum sauce in there too now along with polished oak.

Palate: Comes in as promised by the nose but as I swallow there’s a bit of char, some bitter notes of coffee grounds that add a lovely counterpoint. The citrus is a little brighter here: between orange and lemon. The texture is maybe just a touch too thin. Stays pretty consistent with time. As often happens with lower strength older malts, a few drops of water adds more weight to the texture. Water also brings out the toffee and oak that showed up on the nose.

Finish: Medium. That coffee note turns to dark chocolate on the finish. Longer with water with the citrus now hanging out for some time.

This is a very elegant old whisky. It took a few pours from the bottle for it to open up and reveal all its charms. Reminiscent of some older official Highland Parks of an earlier era in the balance of heavier sherry notes with citrus. A few more ticks of abv would have given it more depth and taken it into the next tier but it’s very, very good as it is.

18th November 2022

I have been collecting the Billy Walker era Glenglassaugh 30 and honestly did not expect much from this new release. Well it turned out surprisingly alright. Not as intense as how I did like it to be, nevertheless a tasty dram. Fig jam, dried fruits and leather for a nose. Apple pie, toffee, peppercorns and mocha for taste.

12th January 2021

Love this swig, got it a few weeks back and finally got a chance to taste it. lovely dram with notes of dried fruit, leather and oak. The flavours are all well balanced too. Good value for a 30 year old

10th January 2021

Somehow since Billy Walker left Glenglassaugh few years back, recently produced Glenglassaugh 30YO became such an inferior 30YO.

I restocked 10 new bottles last year and what a disappointment it turned out to be. New version tasted as if it got watered down, much lighter in color, gone was the lovely thick sherry nose and smooth dram it once was that made the older release THE best bang for the buck of 30YO to my liking. I almost couldn’t believe it and i instant opened another bottle from my diminishing older release stock to compare side by side.

It would be hard to distinguish between older (<2016) and newer release as botols and labels are nearly identical.

2nd May 2020

As an avid Glenglasaugh fan, I've been desperate to try this! I've had nearly all the under £100 expressions, the revival being one of my all time favourite whiskies. THIS was a slight disappointment. It has an incredible smooth smart and the finish is nice and long revealing the wine, cheddar, wood and cameral I expect from Glenglasaugh. However, it wasn't an improvement from the Revival and maybe even a step down from the new Octave Batch 2. If you are huge Glenglasaugh fan like me you got to check it off and try if you are looking for a 30+ expression there are better options on the independent bottle side of things.

24th July 2019

Bought a sample of this, and I found (as a whiskey experienced, yet scotch inexperienced person) this incredibly smooth, perfectly sweet and buttery. Such a well balanced dram. For a 30 yr old spirit that is lesser known, I think that this might be a good deal. I am sure that there are others perhaps that are fantastic, I would expect they would cost more than this one.

1st February 2018

Disappointing

16th March 2017

I bought this for my husband as a 30th wedding anniversary gift, and he really enjoyed it! He usually drinks Macallan, but the 30 year Macallan from our local ABC store was over 3k. This was a wonderful substitute and very affordable!

30th November 2016

For the age range and tasting notes I expected better. There is a reason this is an affordable 30yr.

16th September 2016