Here to close out the week and the month is yet another whisky from a distillery with “Glen” in its name. This time it’s Glenlossie. It’s yet another relatively obscure distillery of which I have little experience or knowledge—this is only my fifth review of a whisky from Glenlossie. I know they’re located in the Speyside and that they produce spirit for Diageo’s blends. I also know very little about the bottler, Alexander Murray, a relatively recent entrant into the independent bottling ranks. From their website it appears they are based in the US—it also seems to say that the company was “born in 1911” but there’s no further explanation of what that means, or indeed any other history provided. Who knows, maybe they only mean that some guy named Alexander Murray was born in 1911. What is history anyway? As Loch Lomond will tell you, it’s just a story and you can move dates and names around as you see fit: no one will care. Anyway, let’s see what this whisky from an obscure distillery, released by an obscure bottler is like.

Glenlossie 19, 1997 (53.3%; Alexander Murray; bourbon casks; from a bottle split)

Nose: Pretty closed at first with only some oak and some indistinct sweet fruit coming through. Gets sweeter as it sits—berries?—and there’s some lime now as well. The oak gets more toasted with each sniff. With more time still, the oak recedes a fair bit and lets the fruit have top billing: there’s some tart-sweet apple too now along with some pineapple jam (and a bit of pastry crust around it all). A few drops of water and the sweetness gets more than a bit floral. With time the berries and pastry crust come back.

Palate: Comes in as on the palate with oak and sweet fruit. Very approachable at full strength with decent texture. The oak doesn’t yield to the fruit here as it does on the nose but there’s good balance between it and the fruit. The acid takes a bit longer to emerge here. With time the glassy/metallic note from the finish pops out earlier. Okay, time to add water. With water there’s more oak at first (bitter now) and then lime zest and a bit of pineapple.

Finish: Medium-long. The sweeter fruit washes out and prickly oak gets the last word. The acid hangs out for a while on the finish once it shows up and it’s joined by some salt and a glassy/metallic note. As on the palate with water and then quite a bit of pepper and salt at the end.

Comments: This is a very pleasant whisky. I really liked the nose but the palate wasn’t quite at that level. Still, a good daily drinker—though at 19 years of age you might want more complexity/elegance.

Rating: 85 points.