Berry Bros and Rudd Spirits, Sense of Place 'Glens & Valleys' collection. Bottled at 56.9%abv and finished in an Oloroso Barrel.

This week, I’ve had the very proud privilege of tasting a 12 year old Glen Garioch from Berry Bros and Rudd Spirits.

The appearance of the whisky is a rich, clear copper. It swirls beautifully round the glass and presents a fine collection of oily tears of a medium thickness as it trails back down.

On first nosing, the immediate raisin and fig comes to the fore of this instantly recognisable Glen Garioch character. I’m on an exotic holiday in the glass here. It gives serious Mediterranean notes, and it isn’t often that you can stumble upon whiskies that smell like sunshine, but this one certainly gives that summer sun luxury. It doesn’t stray too far from rum and raisin cake either.

On the palate, it just delivers sup after sip of candied orange peel, and the freshness of a Little Trees ‘Lemon Grove.’ The alcohol level merges well with the drop overall and serves up something extremely sippable.

To finish this whisky, I’m in a toss-up between Garibaldi biscuit or fig rolls. It’s long lasting and it is delicious.

This whisky is fantastic. It serves up summer holidays, but majestically drifts towards Christmas celebrations with the family towards the end. I can see myself buying one to drink and one to drink… no keepers! The fruit marries well with cereal flavour, and all comes together neatly to present a really well-cut Glen Garioch offering.

Berry Bros. & Rudd are one of the oldest wine and spirits merchants in the world. They began life in 1698 in London and originally served as the official wine supplier to the Royal Family. The original shop located only a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, at 3. St. James Street remains a historic landmark.

Glen Garioch distillery was established in 1797 in Meldrum but didn’t always start out life as a whisky maker. In the early days, The Manson brothers had founded the site as a brewery, tannery and ‘vintner’ – which now we would just call a wine merchant. Patrick Manson was the first person to demonstrate a link between mosquitos and malaria, which was revolutionary at the time.

In the 1970s, Glen Garioch had an acre of greenhouses and polytunnels on the grounds which were warmed by a waste heat recovery system, which also powered the malt kiln and preheated the wash.

His Royal Highness, King Charles III visited the distillery in 2021 after parent company, Beam Suntory (also owners of Jim Beam) delivered a £6m investment. The King toured the grounds and was gifted a bottle of 1978 bourbon cask.

The Glen Garioch from Berry Bros. & Rudd’s ‘Glens & Valleys’ collection is available from Royal Mile Whiskies for £123.95