Glenlivet Nadurra 16 Year Old (Batch 0814D)

Glenlivet‘s Nadurra range offers something a bit different to the distillery’s core range of whisky.

Meaning ‘Natural’ in Gaelic, each Nadurra batch is produced from a small number of casks, is bottled at cask strength with no additional colours and non chill-filtered. The label also contains a load of detail which are normally excluded – perfect for whisky geeks like us!

This particular batch 0814D bottling is from the older range which carried a 16 year old age statement. It was bottled in August 2014, has been matured in ex-Bourbon casks and bottled at 55.7% alcohol.

Our notes are below.

Nose

Rich honey, orange and a slightly ‘green’ oily note, like rapeseed.

There’s vanilla lurking in the background with some pear drop acetone also there and a little cereal sweetness.

As it opens up the cereal becomes more prominent, getting very creamy – almost sweet rice pudding or vanilla ice cream. Balanced with the fresh orange, it’s a great nose.

Palate

Alcohol strength makes this quite sharp to taste neat, but it’s a lovely rich oily mouthfeel.

That orange from the nose dominates as the initial flavour, but then joined by some clove spice, and a little black cherry all combining.

Some vanilla and burnt sugar are present, but losing the battle against those fantastic fruit flavours.

Finish

As the fruit subsides, the spicier notes take over – the clove flavour joined by a wooded dryness, and some spicy cinnamon.

Dry, longish length finish and it’s very well balanced till the end.

Overall

As is the trend in the whisky industry, the 16 year old expression is no longer available, with the age statement having been removed across the current Nadurra range.

This 0814D batch is a cracker however; a lovely example of whisky matured in decent bourbon casks which complement the Glenlivet spirit’s fruity character.

Options for the 16 year old Nadurra are definitely limited now, but if you spot a bottle in a bar, then definitely grab a dram. In the meantime, I need to try the contemporary version to give a fair comparison – one for a future review.