Glengoyne 10 y.o.

I know of a 12yo with the old "black and white" label, the 12/100, and the

Was there a 12yo between the black and white label and the 12/100?

Bart

I *wish* I had an unopened 79/16! (So it was a 16yo then.)

I've had both, and the '79/22 is a superior bottle; it stands up against the other Berry Bros. bottlings that have been available here and against most other malts as well. At least, *I* thought it was marvelous!

But the old '79 was no slouch either. Just a bit more subtle. It has long been my example of a whisky that is better appreciated head to head against other whiskies than all by itself, where its subtle refinement could easily be missed.

Michael Jackson prefers it to the subsequent releases in the 4th edition, but gives a higher rating to the yellow labelled early seventies vintage if I recall correctly. In a head to head between the '79 (the first Berry Bros. Glenrothes available here) and the '82, I prefered the '82; MJ gives the '79 a point over the '82. But while I slightly preferred the '82, I still loved the '79, and they sold so slowly I thought I would always have time to lay in one later, until one day I realized they were all gone.

The 79/16 is best described by words like "refined", "elegant", and "subtle". The 79/22 is more powerful. It's still a refined speyside with charm and good behavior, but with extra layers of maturity, oak and sherry, all in perfect balance. I've had a lot of whiskys that cost more and offered less.

Bart

Locally the '89 came in an oversize platic "space capsule". Some may have come in the standard fiberboard tube as well.

Many of these have not been available locally. We didn't see the old yellow labeled early seventies release as far as I know. The official Berry Bros. bottlings available locally have been limited to the '79, the '82, the '87, the '89 and now the '79 at 22 years. Plus a few independent bottlings, some of which I've missed.

Hope we see that '74/29. It often takes a while for what's available elsewhere to show up on the local shelves. But Xmas isn't that far off, and that's when the majority of the new material hits the local stores.

Although this wasn't addressed to me, I have to ask, which bottlings are considered the substandard bottlings? Not that I doubt you in the least, just curious. I liked the old '79 release very much, and the '82 release perhaps a bit more. Did I fall for a substandard expression? I did think the '87 was a little less interesting and haven't tried the '89. I know also that there were several vintages released in Europe and not imported to the US - '84,'85 etc... were any of these the "substandard bottlings"? Or maybe some of the independent bottlings that didn't follow the "house style" of Berry Bros. and Rudd?

Bart