This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
SBTV
The Glenlivet Alpha tasting notes revealed
The Glenlivet master distiller Alan Winchester has revealed the tasting notes and cask information behind the distillery’s secretive new release, The Glenlivet Alpha.
The Glenlivet Alpha has been matured for an unspecified amount of time in first-fill Scotch casks
Having launched the mysterious black bottle in May this year, the distillery owned by Pernod Ricard kept the tasting notes, barrel information, colour and age of Alpha a secret until now.
In a video posted on the brand’s Facebook page this afternoon, Winchester revealed the whisky to have been aged exclusively in first-fill Scotch casks, giving the whisky sweet notes of orange and clove.
He added that the it was the rarity of such casks that made the whisky so special. “The Glenlivet Alpha is totally unique, we’ve used casks that have not been conditioned by Bourbon or Sherry, they’ve been conditioned with Scotch whisky,” he said. “The reason we’ve used them is it gives us a vibrant colour and rich intensity of flavour. The rarity of the alpha bottling is simply due to the rarity of these Scotch-filled casks.”
The distillery however kept the whisky’s age a secret, as Scotch Whisky Association guidelines forbid the reveal of an age if it hasn’t been printed on the label.
The Glenlivet gave purchasers of Alpha just four weeks to develop their own tasting notes, guided by clues divulged by Winchester on the brand’s Facebook page and website.
Nikki Burgess, international brand director for The Glenlivet, told The Spirits Business in May that the aim of the release was to “engage people and strike up a discussion about the product”.
“We know that single malt fans are really into The Glenlivet and are dying to know more, so this is a way of us being able to have more of a conversation rather than downloading messages. There are only 3,500 bottles worldwide so the objective isn’t a massive revenue gain either; it’s about building more of a relationship with people around the brand.”
Watch Winchester give his own tasting notes and reveal the secrets behind The Glenlivet Alpha in the video below.