Speyside week began on Monday with a bourbon cask Dailuaine bottled by Signatory for Binny’s, and continued on Wednesday with the 2019 release of the Craigellachie 23. I liked both of those a lot. Here now to close out a week is another cask bottled by Signatory for Binny’s. This is a 15 yo Glenlivet and it’s a single first-fill sherry butt. It’s one of several high-octane sibling casks bottled by Signatory. And I mean high-octane: this is nearly at 64% abv. Let’s see what it’s like.

Glenlivet 15, 2006 (63.8%; Signatory for Binny’s; first-fill sherry but 900788; from a bottle split) 

Nose: Unsurprisingly closed at first but after a bit of airing there’s rich notes of raisins and orange peel plus a lot of salted nuts; a very slightly rubbery note as well (rubber gaskets on old medicine bottles). With more air there’s more fruit: apricot jam to go with the orange peel; some butterscotch as well now. With a few drops of water the apricot and butterscotch expand dramatically and there’s some cherry in there too now. One more drop and there’s some plum.

Palate: As on the nose, hot, hot, hot and then more or less the same procession of notes; sweeter here though. The alcohol burn crests as I swallow. This is going to need a lot of air and then water but let’s give it a few more sips in the meantime. With time it gets sweeter with a bit of the apricot coming through but alcohol is still blocking most of it. A few drops of water and it brightens up nicely; more salt too now and a bit of cinnamon. One more drop and now the apricot is fully unleashed—very nice.

Finish: Medium-long. The alcohol is the main action at first; just a bit of sherry separation behind that. With time the sweetness passes through; the sherry separation resolves itself. As on the palate with water.

Comments: I find these high abv casks a little too much work to figure out the right amount of dilution, but I guess I’m working with only 60 ml here. If you had a full bottle you wouldn’t need to futz about as much after the first few pours. At any rate, once I got this down to where I liked it, I liked it a lot. I just didn’t have very much left after that point. $135 seems a lot for a 15 yo malt, even at 63.8%, but if that number’s not high for you in the abstract, you could do a lot worse for the money.

Rating: 87 points.