Glen Garioch Founder’s Reserve
Official bottling | 48% ABV
Geery isn’t for everyone, but patience pays dividends.
On a recent podcast recording Jen, from Callander Drinks Co, mentioned she didn’t get on with Glen Garioch and I was surprised, for what of the purple-spiced deliciousness could be un-enjoyable?
But it turns out Jen is not alone, for the Geery seems to have many detractors. Something weird happens when drinking this whisky that results in either devotion or rejection. I think it circles around the purple, almost over-ripe leaning towards tart note prevalent in a lot of the Glen Garioch I’ve tried. I love it and, when combined with all the other colours present in their whisky - toffee orange and vivid red, it hits me right in the feels.
I love the stuff and my journey in GG started with an innocuous wee 50ml sample I received as a Christmas present in 2021. I devoured it rapid-style while watching Dune (the new one); I fell in love quite quickly with the big smack of purple joy that permeated throughout the delightfully spicy dram. Before the credits rolled in the film, I’d ordered a full bottle of Glen Garioch 12 year old.
It’s safe to say that I rinsed that full bottle in quick time, and I was seeking my next Geery hit. My mind set into search mode but the Highland distillery of hidden delights offers, at present, just two core bottlings for us to enjoy - the 12 year old and the 1797 Founder’s Reserve. There’s more to be found from the Oldmeldrum distillery, such as any of the four Renaissance bottlings or a red wine finished number, both well north of £100. But just two bottles of sub-£50 whisky? Beam Suntory is keeping it tight for us whisky exciters. Or are they?
Recent major investment in the distillery from both a visitor experience and capability standpoint and deployed over the months of lockdown and covid-induced closures, is showing that interest in the Geery malt might be growing. Direct fired stills - check. In-house malting floors - check. This place is getting some big TLC, and I’m all for it.
My advancement in Geery enjoyment arrived in the shape of a 10 year old Cadenhead’s Odense shop release - one of their annual outturn which celebrated the international spread of Cadenhead’s shops dotting the globe. I wrote about my love for it here, awarding 8/10. After that I tried a sample of the Decadent Drinks Equinox & Solstice 10 year old, which was decent, and won a number of 9yo Tawny Port Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting bottles bought at auction. I even lunged unapologetically at a pre-rebrand Carn Mor 6 year old, found for £36, delivering everything I’d hoped - youth plus purple. Absolutely brilliant.
But there was one bottle that remained untried, untested and unknown, partly because of the evidently lacklustre opinion towards it, but also because I had other things in my sights at that time - £35 is a bustling price point right now for entry level malts. But a friendly chap met over digital means, offered the chance at a bottle of the 1797 Founder’s Reserve for a rather frugal £20, and I bit his digital hand off. Apprehensively though, for what’s more efficient at snuffing out rampant whisky dedication than a mediocre certified official expression? I opened the seal and inhaled deeply.
Review
Glen Garioch 1797 Founder’s Reserve, Official Bottling, 48% ABV
£38 (£20 paid) widely available
All the Geery expectations were there - purple brioche buns. I took a very small glug from the neck into a glass, swishing it around my cynical face hole for a bit before realisation set in: this was in the vein of whisky that made me hate whisky. Oh. No. This could be the undoing of the Geery. This little unassuming red-labelled number could reduce the core range expressions from two to one - the 12 year old.
“Give it time”. I placed the stopper back on the bottle and went for a cycle. By the time I was finished pedalling and was standing back in front of the bottle, I was even more unsure; I poured a more generous sample into a glass and left it for a while. Time is whisky’s biggest friend both in cask and glass, and a new mouth swish revealed a lot more flavour and less of the watery wince.
The label on this bottling states, clearly in bold type, that it’s non chill-filtered. There’s no mention of colouring though, and a search online intimates that it is indeed coloured like its older, age stated sibling. Seeing how light in colour the 6 year old from Carn Mor is, and that a lot of people whom this would be aimed at drink with their eyes, it’s no surprise that GG thinks it needs to tone their two core releases appropriately. I’m honestly not too fussed either way - chill-filtering is regarded as the biggest detriment to natural flavour and so at the very least GG have embraced the priority of flavour, despite bowing to the visually vain among us. Presented at 48% ABV, this is two very important check-marks for whisky exciters, and if I had to lose one check from the three, it would be in the colouring department, thus for me this Founder’s Reserve still hits the integrity I desire.
Nose
Powdery candy necklace sweeties. Unripened banana. Peppery soil. Purple plants. Summery fruits. Fruit malted bread. Light smoke whiff. Banana bread. Chocolate nibs.
Palate
Malty, peppery big boy. Purple. Gold. Sweet, malty banana bread. Sugary. Crystallised. Creamy Oak. Marmalade on toast.
The Dregs
I’ve had this bottle for just over a month and it’s almost finished. Each time I’ve dipped into it I’ve found the initial feedback a bit stand-offish. There’s an immediate push back from my inner sanctum of memory that throws up a distant warning flag for whisky, and my palate stumbles for a second before regaining its balance. There’s something about this whisky that, at the very first contact, reminds me of a face that called me bad words through a toothless grin and I shudder.
By the second sip however, it’s business as usual and my shoulders fall from their heightened defensive position. By sip number three I’m singing, and wondering just how something matured from distilled barley water can taste so damned delicious. Given my penchant for cask-strength rocketships of late, this 1797 Founder’s Reserve feels very much like a cup of diluting juice in comparison. Zero water is required - it’s at the sweet spot already - and delivers all of the Geery characteristics that adhere me so permanently to this distillery.
It’s got the purple angle, thankfully. It has the toasted woods and soft toffee chews that slip down the throat funnel with exceptional ease - this is no potent powerhouse, but a body-temp isolation tank. I find myself resting inside its amber glow and forgetting that I’m drinking whisky at all - a companion who quietly listens and offers you attentive, reassuring nods every now and again before bidding goodbye in a warming embrace and a gentle, friendly smile.
Not everyone gets on with the Geery. At our recent Kingsbarns experience magnifico, Matthew from Kinnaird Head Whiskies deemed this very expression to be quite counter to what he liked in a whisky. Time and again he returned to it to find more of the same - not for him. But one night he arrived home, tired and weary from a hard shift to desire nothing more than an easy, friendly dram. He picked up the 1797 and poured himself a dram to discover that, for whatever reason, everything had clicked into place. The whisky and his mood gelled. I don’t think I can say anything more apt than what Matthew experienced - it takes a bit of time to get to know it, but when you do, the bottle might disappear faster than you expected.
For £20 that I paid, it’s been an exceptional cost to experience ratio. For £35, it almost remains as so, for there are other age stated drams around this price (Arran 10, Ledaig 12, Tobermory 12, Glencadam 10 et al) and some of those are genuinely fantastic whiskies. Glen Garioch 12 year old can be found, at time of writing, for £40, and being the lover of the more potent purple fruits, would choose this over all mentioned here today, every day. It’s superb whisky and in a way the reason I haven’t picked up this NAS version until now - why would I spend £35 on this when I can get the more luscious bottle for £5 more? I wouldn’t.
But for £20 or at a push £29? I’d have a bottle of it in my stash forever more, for those nights when I want to get into some big hitters and need something to ease me in gently. Or when I fancy a whisky to hold as I occupy my brain with something else. Worth picking up and trying, especially if it’s on a discounted deal, and if you like it and fancy something a bit more potent, head for the 12. The best examples of Glen Garioch I’ve tried have been the independently bottled expressions. Granted I’ve not tried the Renaissance or wine cask bottlings, but the high cost and general abundance of lower cost indy expressions keeps me from ever buying them - I’ve had them in my basket more times than I care to mention however.
All in then, my love for Glen Garioch remains unperturbed after this experience, and I continue on, joyful in the quest for more of the persistently purple Oldmeldrum spirit du jour.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DC