fiddy thirst state

The high disposable income glory glory days of a lavishly-stocked whisky cupboard groaning with all manner of intoxicating spiritous delights are long gone, sadly, and in these straitened times when most of my meagre income goes on nappies, nursery fees and hilariously expensive tiny shoes the old whisky cupboard is struggling along with just a skeleton staff.

But there is the odd bright spot, like this bottle of Glenfiddich Rich Oak that I picked up for 20-odd quid a month or two back. This is your basic Fiddy plus an unspecified amount of time maturing in "virgin" oak casks, which I take to mean casks that have not previously contained any form of alcoholic spirit - unlike the usual sort which will have previously held either sherry or bourbon (or, occasionally, something more exotic). Indeed the claim is made that this is "the first virgin American and European oak finished whisky in the world." That, as almost all claims about whisky uniqueness are, is hedged about with so many qualifiers as to be almost meaningless to the casual drinker, so the thing to take away is just the extra two years of cask maturation compared with the standard product.

And that makes quite a difference, it seems, as this is notably different from the light and grassy delights of the 12-year-old. It's quite a bit sweeter, for one thing, with a pronounced honey/toffee/Werther's Original (but without the paedo overtones) thing going on, and noticeably darker and richer. It's very good, and, dare I say it, more interesting than the standard 12-year-old, but it's still a bit, you know, nice for my tastes. The now seemingly defunct Caoran Reserve had, by contrast, a few rough and unruly edges and was all the better for it.