by 
Glen Grant Five Decades Single Malt. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 46.00%. Tasted at Canton Lounge.
Colour: Pale gold.
Nose: Orange peel, sweet though.
Palate: Oaky; warmth gently envelopes whole mouth.
Finish: Drying; flavours linger on the front half of the palate.
Comments: I was curious to try this one, I’d heard about it but didn’t know the story. Some quick research revealed the Five Decades was a special release to celebrate the 50th year master distiller Dennis Malcolm had served at Glen Grant. Apparently old Dennis selected some of his favourite Glen Grant casks from across these five decades (1960s to 2000s) and created this malt. Given it’s a No Age Statement whisky, it wouldn’t surprise that it contains some quite young whisky from the latter part of the 2000 decade.
Overall, it does taste quite young and I guess there would be only small percentage of the old stuff in here – not much point throwing too much 40 or 50 year old whisky in with some super young stuff. It kind of misses the mark in my opinion, it’s nothing “special” really to taste. It seems to be an excuse thought up by the marketing department to create a special release. If a master distiller really wanted to create a special release of some of his favourite barrels from the past 50 years I’m not sure how much of the very young stuff they’d choose, much less blend with some special (and undoubtedly quite rare) old ones.