Masterful Glen Garioch including one Samaroli
Glen Garioch is not often featured on this blog, and I have yet to make a tasting note from any official release. I am sure I will get the chance to correct that soon, but for today I have three independent bottlings lined up, including one absolute legend and one that is probably going to be one in the future. In the meantime, we wait for new Glen Garioch production to mature, as around 4 to 5 years ago floor malting and direct heating of the stills was reinstated (source: Malt Whisky Yearbook 2026). This must give interesting results, but I am sure we have to be patient to taste the output. Another 5 to 7 years perhaps? Who knows! In any case, Glen Garioch is not a name we usually see from independent bottlers, so we savour the chance. From my own archive comes a Samaroli expression. The legendary Italian importer sure knew to pick ‘em. Let us dive in.
Glen Garioch 11 years old, vintage 2012, bottled at 48,4 % abv by Thompson Brothers
First things first: Matured in a first fill barrel.
Upon Sipping: A proper warmup dram for this session, with a lot of distillery character, which is robust but carries a lot of fruit. This one makes me doubt if I should drink it or pour a little on the wrist and wear it as a perfume. Like walking in a botanical garden, the tropical section. Not the fruits but the flowers are dominant on the nose. I hope this is not a prelude to other things I associate with perfume! On a wave of vanilla we move to taking a sip. The palate is quite creamy and textured, with the vanilla mostly dominant here, but throughout the middle there are hints of pineapple and malt, and no discerning offnotes of soap, which I have often found (and detested) in Glen Garioch whisky. This is just brilliantly clean and rewarding. Only with water do we draw out some coriander, so I suggest you leave it neat.
Word to the Wise: A very clean and pure Glen Garioch, smelling like flowers and tasting like fruit, with a crystalline finish to top it off. This is straight A scoring all through. It might be a tad one-dimensional but that is fine considering its relatively young age.
Score: 86 points.
Glen Garioch 28 years old, vintage 1998, bottled at 49,3 % abv by Thompson Brothers
First things first: Matured in a first fill Fino Sherry butt producing 597 bottles. Distilled on 13 October 1998 and bottled in November 2025.
Upon Sipping: Huh? How is 1998 already 28 years ago? Was that not yesterday? Jeez… well, the years in the cask rubbed off on this Glen Garioch. It opens on vanilla, fruit yoghurt and strawberry mousse. What a singular nose here, mesmerizing. It might be a bit too much on the creamy side, but it guards a delicate balance. The palate is almost too saccharine but again, the balancing act is performed Cirque du Soleil level! Towards the back end of the palate and on the finish you will pick up delicate wood, but nothing overpowering. We shock the system a little with some water. With this, we pick up more buttery notes, but salted butter, there is definitely some maritime influence here, probably from the cask. On the taste we get more impressions now, with honeyed flavours, kiwi and sour bread. Where first I thought this was a sweetened whisky, it turned more and more into a sour beer, with the acidic notes beautifully balanced. I can’t stop sipping from this delight!
Word to the Wise: Well, these are the gems among the gems, aren’t they? Such a characterful single malt you will not quickly come across. You need to like weird stuff. I added a bonus point for being so truly different in a field where the differences between single malt seem to narrow. Good pick by the brothers!
Score: 91 points.
Glen Garioch vintage 1975, bottled at 50 % abv by Samaroli
First things first: We know the vintage and we know it was bottled in 1988, so roughly a 12 or 13 year old Eastern Highland, in the Fragments of Scotland series by Samaroli. Only 648 bottles were released, the label mentions R.W. Duthie of Aberdeen.
Upon Sipping: The big difference on the nose is now of course the influence of peat, which is briny and earthy, fused with soft Williams pears and sea salt. In that respect, it does echo the 1998, but there the salinity came from the cask, and this seems ingrained in the DNA. What is weird is that this Glen Garioch keeps switching between a medicinal, tarry character and then all of a sudden shows hints of fruit. So incredibly complex. Glen Garioch remains the champion of mainland peat single malt, perhaps only equalled (and surpassed) by Brora. But this expression by Mr. Samaroli gives everyone a run for its money.
On the palate, a dry entry initially, but then the soft peat smolder takes over on a tsunami of citrus flavours. Fat, oily and drying, lots of herbs. Did one ever try to sink teeth into bracken? I just envision these plants tasting like this. The complexity of this Samaroli 1975 Glen Garioch is such that it keeps changing with every sip you take. You expect to taste the iodine on the next, and then you get sweet fruits, but on the next sip the fruitiness has turned sour and you suddenly find yourself wanting to make lemonade. On the next, back to peat.
The sea is never far off, but first and foremost this is earthy peat, and still it is reminiscent of 1970s Caol Ila after the reopening of the distillery. Perfect and rounded. Some water does bring out the flowery, lavender character we also know from Glen Garioch, and that we found hints of in the 2012 vintage. It does not bother me at all.
Word to the Wise: Some whisky comes to close to perfection, and this Glen Garioch ranks up very high. As I understand it, the current (Japanese) owners are trying to return to all kinds of older techniques to improve the quality of Glen Garioch, with floor maltings being reinstated. If they are also peating their malt again, I do not know. But pour one glass of this 1975 Glen Garioch by Mr. Samaroli and the case is made.
Score: 94 points.