Glenburgie 11 Years Old 2010 (Duckhammer’s Rare & Fine Spirits)

Duckhammer's Rare and Fine Spirits bottled this Glenburgie, an 11 year old, distilled in 2010, at 53.7%, one of 149 bottles. Glenburgie is a Speyside single malt, a blending malt rarely seen on its own and largely the work of independents. It has been a core malt of the Ballantine's blend since Hiram Walker bought it in 1936. Its make has long fed big blends like Old Smuggler down the decades. It was rebuilt in 1881 by Charles Chree Doig, the architect behind so many Speyside stillhouses.

The spirit was run slowly off the spirit still, shaping a fine, clean malt with a floral lift. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, oak lactones lending a creamy vanilla. Through integration spirit and wood marry, vanillin rounding out as esters lend a riper apple, pear and a soft honey. A soft waxiness from the spirit carries a thread through the maturation. Years in oak deepen the spirit to old gold, the body growing rounder and waxier with time.

At its natural 53.7% it is full and fruity. Pear, honey and a creamy oak, with a soft vanilla from the oak. Beneath it run baked apple, a light citrus and a soft honey. It finishes light, fresh and faintly waxy. This is a Speyside single malt of real lightness.