This is one of Silvano Samaroli's earliest forays into the realm of independent bottling, following his successful collaboration with Cadenhead's in 1979. This was bottled in the same year. As an official Italian distributor for Glen Garioch, Samaroli had great access to top quality casks and it shows here.

Glen Garioch is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. For most of the 20th century it was self-sufficient, malting its own barley using peat from Pitsligo, giving it a unique smoky character. In fact, in 1968 it was short-listed by then-owners DCL, to convert to heavily peated production in order to make up for a shortfall on Islay caused by a drought. In an odd twist of fate, the decision was instead made to re-open Brora for the job, and close Glen Garioch down. Morrison Bowmore then sprang to its rescue, restarting production in 1973. The maltings and distillery were shut down again by Beam Suntory in 1995, and only the latter resumed operations two years later, with contemporary Glen Garioch becoming an un-peated single malt. These pre-1995 vintages are worth investigating while you can.

This is the first of two 1971 vintage Glen Garioch released by Silvano, bottled at full proof. The second was single cask homage to this, bottled much later in 1997 at a lighter 43%.

Colour: almost mahogany. Nose: again a sherry monster, but this time with a big, bold peat, somehow a la Ardbeg. Incredibly rich and complex. Top notch Italian coffee, garden bonfire, Worcester sauce, tabasco, humus, burnt tyre a la Port Ellen, brand new tyre… Mouth: oh yeah! A cathedral, even better than the nose. I don’t know where to start… Ok, first you have all these coffeeish notes: coffee itself, burnt cake, coffee liquor, dark toffee… Then you have the peat – but one of the most subtle and magnificent peat I ever came accross. Different woods’ smokes, seaweed smoke… And finally lots of cooked fruits. No need to tell you which, they’re all in there. As for the finish, it’s long of course, but also very complex and subtle, on ‘smoked’ fruitcake.

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