Looking at my cabinet of open bottles, I noticed I did not have any younger sherried whiskies open that do not have any peat involvement. It’s not that I have anything against peated and sherried whiskies—why, some of my best friends are peated and sherried whiskies; it’s just that it’s nice to have some variety on hand. And so down I went into my whisky dungeon to see if there were any candidates for opening. There was this bottle of Glengoyne 12 CS. I remembered where I’d purchased it—Lowry Hills Liquor in Minneapolis—but not when. My spreadsheet—very assiduously updated in those days—tells me it was in 2012. I then looked for a bottle code to see if I could pin the release year down further and this is what I found etched towards the bottom of the bottle: L5109BB and below it, 3 15:46. Normally I would guess this meant it was bottled on the 109th day of 2005 at 3.46 pm but I confess I don’t really know how Glengoyne’s bottle codes worked then (or now, for that matter) and there does not seem to be any intel on that online. If you know more about it, please write in below. What I can tell you is that I don’t have so very much experience with Glengoyne; I’ve reviewed very few—the last almost exactly three years ago. But I’ve generally enjoyed what I’ve had even if I have not yet encountered one I thought to be remarkable. I can tell you that this bottle is not going to break that streak (I had purchased more than one back then and I have the score I’d assigned then, in my pre-blog days, recorded in my spreadsheet). But I’m glad to make its acquaintance again anyway.

To their credit, Glengoyne’s current whisky lineup is mostly age-stated. However, the 12 yo CS is a thing of the past (and probably has been for a while—I haven’t followed whisky news for many years now). Their current Cask Strength release is NAS.

Glengoyne 12 CS, Pre-2012 Release (57.2%; from my own bottle)

Nose: Sweet sherry notes with some rosewood and some powdered ginger mixed in. More biscuity as it sits and there’s just a bit of dried orange peel. More citrus with a squirt of water—some lemon in there too now—and a bit of honey as well.

Palate: Comes in sweeter here with the oak more present and more spicy. Pretty hot at full strength. Not a whole lot of change with time. Let’s see what water does for it. It makes it much more approachable and pushes the oak back, pulling out more of the biscuity notes from the nose.

Finish: Long. The spicy oak is the dominant note here. As on the palate with water.

Comments: A very pleasant sherried whisky. They don’t all have to be world-beaters.

Rating: 85 points (water pushed it up a couple of points).