Glentauchers 2008 10yo (Secret Spirits)

Another day, another bourbon-cask Speyside. God damn Secret Spirits did you ever make this calendar a gigantic ripoff.

This is cask strength Glentauchers, distilled in 2008 and bottled in 2018 by Secret Spirits for this calendar, aged in (of course) refill Bourbon casks.

This is part of a series of blind tastings from the “The Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar 5th Edition” advent calendar. I do not know what is in the calendar, so every one of these reviews is 100% no prior knowledge.

1. Macduff 2003 14yo (Single Cask Nation)
2. Wemyss Wooden Chest
3. Lost Distillery Company Auchnagie Classic
4. Glen Moray 2008 9yo #5764 (Secret Spirits)
5. Craigellachie 12yo 2006 Cask Strength (Secret Spirits)
6. Exclusive Malts Islay Sherry Cask (Laphroaig)
7. Adelphi Breath of Speyside 2006 (11yo)
8. Balmenach 2004 13yo (Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask)
9. Glen Moray 2007 10yo (A.D. Rattray)
10. Royal Brackla 2006 11yo (Secret Spirits)
11. Wemyss Delicious Burst
12. Lost Distillery Company Stratheden Classic
13. Auchinderom - Peated Glenglassaugh (Malt Whisky Company)
14. Knockdhu 2009 9yo (A.D. Rattray)
15. Caol Ila 2009 9yo (Secret Spirits)
16. Wemyss Nectar Grove
17. Glentauchers 2008 10yo (Secret Spirits)
18. Glenallachie 2009 9yo (Secret Spirits)
19. Williamson (Laphroaig) 2005 13yo (A.D. Rattray)
20. Stones of Stenness Orkney Aged 18yo (Single Cask Nation)
21. Inchgower 1995 21yo (Hunter Laing Old Malt Cask)
22. Towiemore Archivist (Lost Distillery Company)
23. North British 1988 30yo (A.D. Rattray)
24. Inchmurrin 1996 21yo (Secret Spirits)
25. Glen Grant 1988 30yo (A.D. Rattray)

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Distiller: Glentauchers
Bottler: Secret Spirits
Distilled: 2008
Bottled: 2018
ABV: 62.9%
Age: 10yo
Cask type: Refill Bourbon
Source: The Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar 5th Ed.
Setting: Blind

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Nose: Buttered popcorn, vanilla oak, some peach and grain. An edge of earthiness/cheese mould lends some interest to what could otherwise be described as a cask strength bourbon cask Speyside.
Palate: Overwhelmingly hot, and immediately drying. Some heather honey and floral notes lie beneath the heat, but this a story of fire on the palate.
Finish: Finishes honey forward, with vanilla and candied stonefruit. Not finding the earthy edge from the nose here.
Overall: Sure tastes like we’ve come back to bourbon-aged speyside here. It seems at least to have some interesting complexity on the nose, but it punches you with overwhelming fire on the palate, deafening any other subtlety it may have bought to bare. Nonetheless a head above the less interesting bourbon-driven speysides of earlier in the calendar.
Rank: 5
Reveal: What a surprise.