When you first discover music, and I mean proper music, not
some pop-tastic, here-today-gone-tomorrow, tweenie-aimed, profit-driven
offering from a major record company, you often realise what a wealth of natural
talent there is to hear in the world.
The are so many artists who have had a genuine impact on
culture that it would probably be impossible to listen to every track by every
artist listed under the ‘influential’ banner. As a result, as we move through
life, we hear certain tracks (usually the biggest ‘hits’) by major acts and we
pick and choose whose back catalogues we would like to dig a little deeper in
to.
Every-so-often, and due to the huge reservoir of recorded
music in the world, we’re hit with a classic artist or album which we’ve genuinely
never heard before. I remember when I first subscribed to Spotify; it was a
nightmare for about a week, because I didn’t know whether to go through and
enjoy all the music I knew I already liked, or to explore the artists I loved,
or to simply listen to loads of ‘new’ music (or at least new to me, if not in
the literal sense).
And of course, there is brand new music being created every
day. This just adds to the ever increasing pile of music, from both past and
present, on the great ‘unlistened-to’ playlist in the sky.
However, it is good to have a cheeky look sometimes at some of the acts
which have sold bucket-loads of records in the past, who have shaped modern
culture and the sound of many of today’s artist.
The whisky business is booming at the moment. Okay, so sales
maybe down overall (with profits up), but the expansion of various Scottish
distilleries, the re-opening of others and the building of new premises, both
in Scotland and across the world, makes it seem like we’re in the middle of the
industrial revolution.
With all this new sprit being generated and previously
snoozing brands coming back to life, it is easy to forget the stalwarts, one of
them being Glen Grant.
The first distillery to be opened in the now whisky-focused Speyside town of Rothes (home not just to several distilleries but also to the
Combination of Rothers Distillers (CoRD) dark grains plant, as well as Forsyths,
world-renowned coppersmiths and stillmakers), Glen Grant has established itself
as a major player, one of the biggest selling single malt in the world.
Pretty impressive stuff,
really.
With a powerhouse in the USA and Italy as its sales
foundation, since it was acquired by Gruppo Campari in late 2005, the range has
been expanded to cover a No Age Statement ‘Major’s Reserve’, a 10 Years Old and
a 16 Years Old, all supplement by market-specific offerings, such as a 5 Years
Old in Italy, all of which are matured in ex-Bourbon casks.
The running of the distillery is overseen by an industry
legend, Dennis Malcolm who started at the distillery in April 1961 as an
apprentice cooper. Having been in charge of both Glen Grant and its sister
distillery, the now-departed Caperdonich, in his 50 years plus Dennis has
worked in all stages of the whisky making process. Needless to say that what he has forgotten about whisky making is more than I’ll probably ever know.
To celebrate his five decades at the distillery, Glen Grant
have release a special, limited edition bottling simply known as ‘Five Decades’,
containing whisky from each of the decades, which was launched at a dinner in Edinburgh
last week.
Dinner is always great (something I try to fit in every
single day, don’t you know) but the two real treats of the evening were firstly
being able to spend some time chatting to Dennis about his career and the
business and secondly, trying the core expressions from Glen Grant, something I
really haven’t done in a very long time, if at all with a couple of the
expressions. Going through the Major’s Reserve and the 16 Year Old was a little
like digging into the past albums from a great act which you haven’t really
spent much time with before. Suddenly you realise why they are so well loved.
Having sampled the 10 Years Old, the 16 Years Old and the aforementioned
Major’s Reserve, we were treated to a glass of the new release, Five Decades.
Putting together a whisky using stock from the 60’s, 70’s,
80’s, 80’s and 00’s can’t be an easy feat, but Glen Grant has a history of
fantastic old stock, much of it bottled by the brilliant independent bottlers,
Gordon & MacPhail. This new release is not to be confused with one of these vitnage bottlings, as
it is very much its own beast, but the age does shines through, coupled with
youthful bursts of spirit along the way. Unusually for Glen Grant, this uses a portion of whisky matured in Oloroso sherry butts.
Glen Grant – Five Decades – Limited Edition – 46%abv 70cl
Nose: Orange
blossom, honey and nuts (crunchy nut cornflakes?), sweet vanilla and golden syrup. Yet more
honey as it develops in the glass.
Palate: Vanillas,
orange citrus fruits, milk chocolate (rum and raisin?), apricots, rye bread
with salted butter.
Finish: a hint of
smoke (just a tiny amount), some blackcurrant and liquorice tones.
Overall: This is available
from July 2013 for an RRP of £115. One of the hot potatoe topics of the whisky
business at present is that of age statements. Here, you have a whisky carrying
no age, but with the knowledge that it contains a good portion of whisky from a
span of five decades. A sweet and soft whisky which will appeal in abundance to
the Glen Grant drinker, this is well worth a try.
Having discovered their core range and fully understood quite how
this distillery can be so well respected (the 16 Years Old is particularly
fantastic stuff), it has inspired me to go off and dig around on Spotify and
find some of those major-uit-shifting acts which I’m not all that familiar
with: Neil Diamond, Chicago and Foreigner await. This could be a very long
evening... someone pass me a glass of Glen Grant.