Glen Deveron is a duty free standby with a rare, reasonable price tag, and I picked this 16 year old up on the way home from a recent trip to London. It’s a no-frills 16 year old Highlands single malt made at the Macduff distillery in the far northeast of the island, with aging in both bourbon and sherry casks. Any additional details are tougher to divine.
Bright and sunny on the nose, the sherry-driven fruit notes move beyond a typical and simple orange quality and into more immersive and complex notes of Meyer lemon peel and mandarin juice. If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was a drop of triple sec in the mix here. Underneath all the fruit, the whisky is lightly leathery with a touch of oily wood in evidence, adding a racy, toasted quality to the aromatics.
On the palate, the fruit isn’t nearly as pronounced, but it’s still got a nice grip on things, using a well-toasted core of cereal grains as a canvas against which additional notes of expressed orange oil, ginger, and more of that oiled wood are laid. As things roll along the Scotch takes a more traditional road that culminates in notes of crumbly lemon cookies with vanilla icing, touched with a hint of smoky barrel char. The finish offers a sweet almond nougat note that feels ripped from a candy bar.
Excellent all around, but particularly solid considering the price.
80 proof.
A- / £55 (1 liter)
Glen Deveron 16 Years Old – Royal Burgh Collection
£55
