K&L Exclusive: Rare 18 Year Old First-Fill Sherry Butt Single Malt

2005 Glenrothes 18 Year Old "Old Particular" K&L Exclusive First Fill Sherry Butt Cask Strength Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) ($109.99)

This exceptional find is one of the very best values K&L has ever been able to offer. Glenrothes is truly one of Speyside's most prized distillers, and it's extremely unusual for them to let go of heavily sherried stocks, let alone something that's aged over 18 years. This one was distilled in February of 2005 and aged for 18 years in a first-fill sherry butt. The results speak for themselves, a dense powerful malt style full of powerful spice and complex sherry.

The Glenrothes Distillery was founded in the town of Rothes in 1879 by James Stuart & Co., owners of the near by Macallan Distillery. The distillery boasts its own onsite cooperage and is renowned for the use of high-quality sherry barrels in its bottlings. The few independently bottled expressions of this famed distillery are almost always VERY expensive, and very rarely aged in sherry.

This dark dense malt offers aromas of rich dried red fruit, rich mocha and deep cacao nibs. The sweet fruit is tamed perfectly by a bold European oak spice and a rich buttery texture on the palate. Expect cinnamon and clove to build on the finish with a gorgeous zesty orange peel note to balance.

David Othenin-Girard | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: September 27, 2024

It's whiskies like this that make me so proud of what we've built at K&L. We've spent years looking for great Glenrothes in sherry at a price that didn't make me cringe, but it's simply not been in the realm of possibilities until now. In fact, in the month before this cask became available, we'd been offered a slightly older Glenrothes in bourbon at nearly 2 times the cost of this barrel. That would have been a barrel of 200 bottles. This barrel cost half as much with three times as many bottles. No one is doing stuff like this but us. It's just silly when you think about it.

But the great price doesn't matter if the whisky doesn't taste good. Let's try it! The color is mahogany (1.6). Immediately there's a huge oloroso note! YES! Big dense old school sherry and a tiny hint of the Glenrothers funk without going into the sulfur stuff. Just a twinge of flinty earthiness which melds perfectly into the old sherry character forest floor, dried herbs, roasted salty almonds. Behind that we have dark red fruit compote, very old cracked leather, Tahitian vanilla, mahogany, nougat and fudge brownies. Savory, salty and sweet on the palate with great texture and a surprisingly clean finish considering the deep characterful nose. The finish is all caramel candies and almond honey nougat and fluffy wafer cookies dipped into old palo cortado. A gorgeous old-school oloroso-driven sherried malt, which contrasts our clean as a whistle Dailuaine from this season perfectly. A stupendous value considering what lesser distillers are commanding for sherry of younger age and lesser quality.