4.7/5 with 10,000+ reviews
Glengoyne 12 Year Old Review
Glengoyne Distillery, and Scotland in general, have always held a very special place in my life.
As a child growing up in North Yorkshire, our family holidays were often trips to Scotland, being closer to the border than many other places in England. A family tradition on holiday was always to visit the nearest distillery to the campsite we were staying at. By the age of 14, I had visited multiple well known distilleries; The Dalmore, Blair Athol, Talisker, Arran, and Aberfeldy. I suppose this sowed the seed for my future love of whisky and fine spirits.
At the age of 18, after passing my A-Levels, I entered into a career in the outdoor and adventure education sector. This involved completing qualifications in many different adventure activities.
In 2019, I spent a few days camping in the Loch Lomond area and spent my days hillwalking and bagging Munros to log my experience for my Summer Mountain Leader Award. After two particularly long , wet and windy days and more torrential weather incoming, I sat in my tent on the shores of the Loch wondering what to do with my time. I google searched distilleries in the area, and Glengoyne came up, a distillery I had never heard of. I decided to visit.
I was greeted with a dram of their 12 year old single malt on arrival, and joined a tour of the most picturesque distillery I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. The guide shared a vast amount of knowledge and remained incredibly proud of the distillery's history and Scottish ownership.
I still have good memories of the visit to this day. It was the first distillery I visited where I was old enough to try the end product, and it was the start of my journey into the whisky world which has led to my new career as part of The Whisky Shop.
Matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, Glengoyne 12 Year Old is pale, yet viscous liquid. It is the only whisky to be distilled in the Highland region, and mature in the Lowland region; The line defining two regions runs right between their site in the form of the A81.
The nose provides notes of green apples, golden syrup, cream, caramel, and citrus fruits. The palate delivers with flavours of toffee apples, cinnamon, other baking spices, unripe pears, white grape tartness, and provides a fizzy feeling, almost like lemon sherbet, or a refreshing lager. The baking spices linger long into the finish, joined by flavours of oak and dark chocolate. The fizziness remains, however is now reminiscent of a sparkling cider.
An excellent whisky for the lingering warmth of summer, produced by "the slowest running stills in all of Scotland".
Explore our full range of Glengoyne, here.
