Travel retail exclusive | 46.3% ABV

Global Travel Retail

As I wandered through the buzzing human cacophony that is Heathrow International Airport during the holiday period, I zigged and zagged through the scrum and looked forward to one point in space and time in this mini-megacity. Passing by crowded cafes, busy bookshops, and travellers huddled around Harrod’s uber-swank, I plotted a course to the whisky shop. Engage.

As I browsed the shop, it dawned on me that I repeat this self-deception a few times a year; every time I pass through Heathrow. I anticipate some sort of deal or “find” in the whisky shop. Maybe there will be something there that’s good value and that I haven’t already seen on any of the many whisky shops and sites and auctions I browse? And maybe it’ll be a steal for value. And almost every time, I must confess, I’m disappointed.

As I shuffled through the shop, careful not to knock over anything with my overstuffed backpack and trying nonchalantly but desperately to avoid the eager salesperson following me around asking me if I “need any help,” I perused. Multiple shelves of multiple permutations of 40% ABV Glenfiddich. Some Glenfiddichs in orange bottles, some in blue. One even at 50-something percent and declaring “unchillfiltered” on the label; it’s nice to be surprised sometimes. Some of them appeared in glass cases with fancy lighting.

Rinse and repeat for various Glenmorangies, Glenlivets, and Johnny Walkers. Loads of Johnny Walkers. And Macallans, of course. The other side of the shop held more promise for the kinds of bottles I would be more interested in: Ardbeg, Craigellachie, Balblair, Old Pulteney, Tomatin, and others. Ardbeg Uigeadail for £53 stood out.

Some bottles looked mildly interesting; ABVs different from the standard releases, different age statements (10 instead of 12!), or a different cask finish here and there. The salesperson finally corners me and asks if I’ve seen the endorsement by a certain luxury car maker of a certain peaty malt, pointing open-handedly and presentingly at the bottle. He looks at me trying to register what sort of customer I am and if I’m impressed. I’m tempted to ask if the photo of a fancy car on the bottle makes the whisky taste better. But, I keep cynical, snarky Drummond at bay this time, as sensible Drummond reminds me that he’s simply doing his job. I shuffle further on past stacks of Chivas and piles of Ballantine’s on my way to the gate.

I say I’m disappointed in the travel retail offerings, but then perhaps that’s being unfair. After all, I of course realise that the offerings here are, for the most part, not really aimed at enthusiast whisky botherers like you and me. They are, mostly, for the casual buyer and casual drinker, bleary-eyed passengers hoping to pick up a gift on the way to Point B. And that’s fine. I guess the disappointment still comes in when I recall my first few flights after having gotten into whisky, almost five years ago now. Four or five, even three years ago, I could find things of enthusiast interest in travel retail. Yes, I was pretty green with whisky then, and hence pretty much everything was exciting, but there was still much more variety for someone who had moved well past your standard 40% Speysiders. There wasn’t a lot more, but some more, like today’s Deanston, for example.

This all makes perfectly good business sense, of course. Why would distilleries and their corporate owners send product of enthusiast-level quality to a market that is, in most cases, likely not made up of enthusiasts?

Global travel retail is big business, and whisky is a big part of that big business. In 2022, travel retail recovery after lockdowns and restrictions was led in large part by whisky sales. Travel retail whisky sales jumped 77% from 2021 to 2022, and projections last year anticipated that 2023 would be similarly healthy, even if overall figures are still below pre-pandemic levels. I haven’t yet been able to locate overall figures from 2023, but if the anticipated growth did indeed come to pass, then it’s no surprise that we’re seeing a kind of homogenization of travel retail offerings. Call it the grocery store-ization of travel retail.

There’s little business sense of putting valuable single-cask, cask-strength Glen Whatnot and relatively obscure (to the general public) expressions on the shelves for those who, many at least, won’t fully register what they are. Best to stock the shelves with recognisable brands that will definitely move. The days of ambitious flippers buying cheap flights just to pass through security, grab the then-genuine goodies in travel retail, then exit at Arrivals without ever boarding an actual flight has long since passed.

Today’s Deanston was my most recent purchase in travel retail, purchased in this same Heathrow shop in January 2022. It’s been that long since I’ve found something that looked interesting enough for me to part with my hard-earned dough. I will say that Glasgow Airport has a single-cask, cask strength Glen Scotia that very much stood out, and the specs looked intriguing. But I resisted, leaving it for another trip. I’ll of course keep loitering in airport whisky shops looking for something interesting, but I won’t be holding my breath next time.

To be honest, I’m fine with that. With a couple of local independent shops I like to support when I can, the occasional online retailer purchase, plus browsing auctions and sometimes finding a bargain there, I have more than enough places to empty my wallet on whisky. I’d prefer it this way than spending even more money at the airport, particularly after I’ve dropped £20 on a bitter coffee and stale bread sandwich that has brown sauce when I asked for mayo at a table still sticky from the last person’s 7am pint and chips.

Review

Deanston 10yo, Bordeaux Red Wine Cask Finish, Global Travel Retail exclusive, 46.3% ABV
£35 (£32 paid in 2021) GTR exclusive, occasionally available elsewhere.

Nose

Floral spice and red berry perfume. A lightly spiced red berry bouquet. Lightly malty and soft stewed/boiled fruits. A mostly cask-driven nose, but pleasant.

Palate

Sweet and spicy off the bat. Boiled sweets, red berries – raspberries, dark grapes (of course), a hint of dark chocolate cherries – and more spice, something like cinnamon and/or nutmeg. The development reveals more of the Deanston spirit: some honey, barley notes, and stewed fruits in the background. Velvety and hints of oak.

The bottle doesn’t specify the length of the finish in the red wine casks, but it’s much more substantial than a “flash-finish.” The cask influence feels well-married with the spirit rather than the “lightly covering over” quality I get in quick and questionable finishes. The honey-malty-boiled-fruits characteristics of the spirit work pretty well with the sweet dark berry qualities of the cask. I don’t get any of the sour notes that I sometimes get on both white and red wine finishes. I gather that such sour notes are one reason why wine finishes can often be so divisive.

The Dregs

This has opened up tremendously in the two years since I initially popped the cork. I recall that the first few drams were quite a bit different; the palate seemed a bit thinner, the floral notes on the nose were more overpowering and, well, winey, and the Deanston spirit felt more overwhelmed.

Now, that honey-malty-stewed fruit spirit character has come out from the initial shadows. This is nicely balanced, in this sense, between cask and spirit, even if the cask somewhat dominates on the nose and gives some slight false advertising for what is a more complex, rounded, and balanced palate. And these casks must have been great: the qualities the cask has imparted come across as fresh, vibrant, and enveloping, rather tasting like than 3rd fill tired old oak.

For a travel retail selection, this is great stuff and great value. I purchased this for £32 two years ago, and on another trip last year I saw this in another airport for a similar price (around £35). Rating this solely against the slim pickings that is currently travel retail, I’d score this 9/10.

But, more realistically and fairly, scoring it against the other Deanstons that I know well (Virgin Oak, 12yo, 18yo, and the 2008 Oloroso belter), and against the wider market at the moment for this age and general profile, this is solid stuff and great value – if you can still find it at around this price. I don’t know that I’d buy it again necessarily, as there’s so much else to explore and the vaults at Fort Drummond are bulging – not to mention that one of my goals for 2024 is buying less and savouring more – but I’ve enjoyed my time with this, happy I’ve explored it, and can sip it easily knowing what a bargain it was.

Score: 6/10

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DD

Other opinions on this:

Whiskybase
Kevin Grant On Whisky (YouTube)

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