Glenrothes 20 yo 1985/2005 (Happiness, is a warm bun...)

50ml samplers are not a great size of bottle. For me, the ideal size of a bottle is 20-35ml, a half bottle here in the UK (Americans have larger bottles at 750ml, and Asian duty free sells a lot of 1l bottles). The reason is because if the whisky is good, I usually want more than a couple of drams. Nevertheless, they are a cost effective way to try as many whiskies as possible, as well as to get to know new distilleries better.

As little sampler bottles go though, Glenrothes has got it right. Instead of 50ml bottles, they sell 100ml bottles, attractively shaped like a little round ball of goodness. The whisky character is very Speyside, sweet, fruity and wholesome, and leaves me wanting more, which is great because there is more. There is also sufficient whisky in a sampler for a food pairing, which is what I tried to do here. The food of choice is Ladurée macaroons (or macaron - the French version of a Scottish biscuit), a great Parisian sweet, lovely with coffee and tea, and hopefully with whisky too.

First, tasting notes:

Glenrothes 20 yo 1985/2005 (OB)
Single malt - Speyside
Warm amber
43% ABV

Nose: Raisins, vanilla, malty beer. Oat bread and hot cross buns. Dried cranberries.
Mouthfeel: Thick, full-bodied, creamy, very static, no expansion.
Tasting: Sweet salty, pepper and cloves, Sultanas, honey and banana. Rich, deep and complex.
Finish: Short but intense. Malty beer, raisin bun, hint of marmite on toast.

And on to the tasting. Ladurée sells about 20 flavours of macaroon in London. I've picked 5 of my favourites to see how they go with the whisky.

1. Chestnut

Ladurée's chestnut macaroons have nice chunks of chestnuts in the cream filling. It's certainly a textural and flavour surprise. The whisky seems to bring out bready, oaty notes, while the chestnut chunks taste sweeter. The creamy filling and the creamy mouthfeel seem to go very well together, although this would be a characteristic of all the macaroons. There's not much enhancement of the chestnut flavours though.

2. Chocolate and passionfruit

This macaroon is a thick layer of dark chocolate cream between 2 passionfruit flavoured meringue halves. It's a new flavour which I haven't tried before, so I'd selected it pretty much on a whim. The whisky seemed to bring out a savoury note - soya sauce, perhaps. The chocolate flavours were muted by the whisky, with a rich fruitiness appearing which jarred slightly with the savoury hints.

3. Orange blossom

Ladurée's orange blossom macaroon is cream with orange blossom water between 2 vanilla meringue halves. The whisky intensified the orange notes, turning it very orangey and very floral indeed. There was also a faint hint of butterscotch, perfumed and creamy. The whisky itself also tasted much saltier than when unaccompanied. Very tasty indeed.

4. Salt caramel

This is my favourite of Ladurée's macaroons. The salt caramel is in the filling, and it gives a savoury counterpoint to the sweet meringue. That was on its own though - the whisky brought out some bitter oaty notes which weren't particularly pleasant. The whisky also tasted sweeter than when unaccompanied, with the sultana and raisin notes very muted. Not particularly interesting.

5. Rose

Rose is a little like orange blossom - the floral flavouring is in the cream filling rather than in the meringue, which is probably vanilla. Like with orange blossom, the whisky enhanced the floral notes, but unlike orange blossom, also introduced a yeasty beery flavour that didn't quite go. Fruity raisins at the end too, but it was a little too late. Interesting, but not great.


Overall, I think orange blossom macaroons shade it. It would probably have been even better had the Glenrothes been bottled at a higher ABV - more flavour compounds would have dissolved with more alcohol, and been released into my mouth. Maybe I'll try to pair a stronger whisky with macaroons in a later post.