What Does John Know?

As many of you may know, in addition to the Glenrothes Select Reserve (which is the constant in the brand’s portfolio), the distillery regularly releases vintages from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Well, the brand manager for Glenrothes here in the U.S. informs me that we’re getting two new vintages in the very near future.

The first one is a 1975 Vintage. This one is expected to arrive in the U.S. in the December/January time frame. The details: 3708 bottles produced, with approximately half of them coming to the U.S. Expect to pay about $500. I had a quick tasting of it at WhiskyFest (poured at the charity table) and thought it was pretty good–much less sherried than the single cask, cask-strength 1979 Vintage what was released about a year ago. I felt that one was just too sherried for balance. The question remains: will this new 1975 Vintage be better than the what’s becoming legendary 1972 Vintage released a few years back?

The second one coming out in the spring of 2008 will be a 1985 vintage that replaces the previous 1987 vintage. That one will set you back about $125.

I’ll be getting pre-release samples of both whiskies and post my thoughts within the next few weeks.

And one more thing before I forget: For all of you traveling this fall, I was also informed that Travel Retail (formerly Duty Free) will have a 25 year old Glenrothes for sale. It replaces the 30 year old. There’s 2,400 bottles being distributed and will go for about $360.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 11:06 am and is filed under WhiskyFest, New Releases, Scotch whisky. Trackback from your own site.