You may have noticed that I failed to post the promised Seoul restaurant report this past weekend (I’d actually said I might post two) and that I also failed to post my usual Monday booze review yesterday. What can I say, it was a hectic week, capped by travel on Sunday—we are currently in Southern California—and I just did not have time to either resize photos for a restaurant report or take tasting notes for a whisky review. Accordingly, this week’s booze review is being posted on a Tuesday and the usual Tuesday Twin Cities restaurant report will be posted tomorrow. And even though my track record with actually following through is so poor at this point, I am going to once again say that I will try to post one or maybe even two food reports from our time in Korea by the end of the week—I have a total of five of those left to do, I think. I also still have two reports yet to come from my trip to New Jersey/New York in mid-May; and by the time Thursday rolls around I will have already begun to add to the waiting list with meals from this current Southern California sojourn. I will at least refrain from making promises of reports to come from those fronts this week.

This week’s whisky review is not of a recently-opened bottle. With this trip coming up, I did not want to open any bottles that would just sit there for 3 weeks. And so I’m instead again taking a whack at finishing up my accumulated samples. I actually have very few of those left and until I found this one, I had no memory of ever having acquired it. But here it is anyway: my review of Batch 5 of the Glenallachie 10 CS. I’ve previously reviewed Batch 2 and Batch 3, both of which I liked a lot; and also Batch 6, which I liked less. Like Batch 6, Batch 5 was put together from a hodgepodge of cask types: PX, oloroso, virgin oak and rioja. Let’s see what it’s like.

Glenallachie 10 CS, Batch 5 (55.9%; from a bottle split)

Nose: A bit of dusty oak and a mix of sweet red fruit (cherry) and citrus (orange peel). A pleasant start, to be sure. As it sits the oak gets a little more perfumed but there isn’t much else to report. A few drops of water push the oak back and soften it up: some toffee and butterscotch now.

Palate: Comes in hotter than expected with more oaky bite than the nose had indicated; turns more cough syrupy as I swallow. Decent texture. The citrus from the nose shows up with time and air and the oak becomes a little less pronounced. Softer notes on the palate too with water but the oak is still quite palpable here.

Finish: Medium. The oak and the alcohol take the lead here to start. A little bitter at the end. Develops as on the palate with time as the fruit hangs out longer and trumps the oak. Longer with water and the bitterness returns.

Comments: I like this better than Batch 6 but not quite as much as the other two. Assuming the more active and bitter oak notes are a marker of the virgin oak casks, I wish those had been left out of the vatting. Well, not the best but also not the worst way to mark what will probably be my last Glenallachie for a long time (unless I have one in my stash that I’ve forgotten about).

Rating: 85 points.