Glen Deveron 20 year old

Malt Mileage Rating: ★★★★

Type: Single malt

Origin: Highlands, Scotland   

ABV: 40%

Glen Deveron 20 year old, which I purchased at Changi airport in Singapore, is actually whisky from the Macduff distillery – the distillery chooses to use the name “Glen Deveron” for its single malt. Malt from Macduff tends to be released by independent bottlers and it is also used to make blended whisky. It is therefore rare to see Glen Deveron (aka Macduff) single malt whisky.

To  create Glen Deveron 20 year old, the Macduff distillery mature its malt in sherry-oak casks for 20 years. This maturation has created a whisky, as the below tasting notes show, that is dominated by the smell and taste of sherry. 

The nose is oily, with banana, cereal, nuts (hazelnut, walnut, almond) and hay sitting over a base of sherry wood; that sherry wood smells herbal, and of raisins and wooden furniture (as is typical of Oloroso sherry). The bouquet is fresh, vibrant and fruity, but beneath the top layers sits big bold sherry wood. On the palate the whisky tastes heavily of cinnamon, peppermint, Fishermans Friend, menthol cough drops – it has an incredibly herbal and spicy flavour profile!  Candied citrus peel develops, together with mild spices. On the finish the taste of the sherry – the fortified wine itself and not just the wood – intensifies, and citrus oils, vanilla, banana chips and light fruit cake develop with herbal smoke.