Artist 11 Glenlivet 2006 Aged 15 70cl 62.5°

Distillery : The Glenlivet / Country : Scotland / Reference: : 24896

This Glenlivet version of the 11th Artist collection is both rich and complex, with remarkable balance.

The aromatic palette reveals a beautiful maturity and highlights a fruity, floral and roasted character, which gives it a lot of substance and depth.

Oscillating between classicism and modernity, this Single malt also shows a freshness of expression overflowing with exoticism and delicately herbaceous.

245,00 € tax incl.

soit 350,00 € / litre

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Features
Volume0.7 L
ABV62.5 °
TypeSingle malt
DistilleryThe Glenlivet
CountryScotland
RegionSpeyside
Age15 years
PeatNon Peated
Reference:24896

For generations, George Smith’s ancestors have been distilling in the Livet valley, in Speyside in Scotland.


Their name was then Gow, which they changed into Smith to give it a more English consonance, as a battle was lost against the English. In 1823, the ability to obtain a license was created with the enforcement of the Excise Act. And George Smith was the first to ask for and obtain his legal license to operate a distillery. He started his activities in a farm.


The Duke of Gordon, owner of the field and father of the first law on distillery legalization was quite enthusiast about the results of this first legal distillery. But the illegal distillers were not. They even threatened George Smith, which led the Duke of Gordon to lend him two pistols, still exhibited today in the distillery’s museum.


In 1849, his son James Gordon Smith founded a distillery named Delnabo, near Tomintoul. As this did not turn out to be a success, George took over the management of his son’s distillery and renamed it Cairngorn. In 1858, George associated with his son James Gordon Smith, to build a bigger distillery near Minmore, where is located the current distillery.


The two old distilleries were then closed and dismantled. The new distillery was located near the railway, which would be most helpful in the following. The commercial success is also to be attributed to the exclusive distributor of the distillery’s products, Andrew Usher & Co, who by the way invented the first consistent commercial blend, consistency being a key value of blended whiskies.


In the 1880’s, The Glenlivet had such a reputation than a few shameless distillers even borrowed the name. John Gordon Smith partially won the trial as he sued many of the competitors, and became the only one able to use the name and became “The Glenlivet”, while others could only add the word “Glenlivet” to their own name. The brand was established in 1870.


The current owner wishes to go further and oblige his competitor to relinquish any mention to Glenlivet in their names. He set an example while renaming one of the group’s distillery, formerly “Braes of Glenlivet” in “Braeval”. In 1953 the distillery merged with Glen Grant. In 1958, the original buildings were destroyed by a fire.


At the beginning of the 1970’s, the Glenlivet and Glen Grant purchased the Longmorn distillery and formed the Glenlivet Distillers group, bought back in 1977 by the Seagram group. The distilleries of “The Chivas & Glenlivet Group” belonging to Seagram were purchased by the Pernod-Ricard group on December 19, 2001. The only closure met by the Glenlivet was World War II, as the country was hit by barley shortages. Apart from the Single Malt production, the distillery’s whisky is being used in quality blends, such as Chivas Regal and Royal Salute. 

Nose: fine, nuanced. On the first nose: aromas of beeswax, pepper and heather honey. On aeration: apricot, vanilla and milky (almond, walnut) notes. Then appear notes of orange zest, heady flowers (carnation, wallflower) and roasted aromas (black tea, coffee, tobacco).

Palate: lively, tense. Marked by voluptuous and mellow flavours of bourbon vanilla, dried fruits (date, fig) and toffee. In the mid-palate, linden honey rubs shoulders with lavender honey, white peaches and candied apricots. In the aftertaste, plantains, mangoes and persimmons add an exacerbated touch of exoticism to the taste palette.

Finish: long, suave with notes of chocolate, malted barley, herbal infusions (chamomile, verbena, mint), Mirabelle plums, grapes and melon. Medicinal and camphorated, the empty glass highlights the strength of character of this Glenlivet Artist.