Watches And Whisky: Glen Garioch 1978 + Jaeger-LeCoultre
Aged Sophistication: Three centuries old and still going strong, which is quite an achievement for a small Aberdeenshire distillery on the road between Banff and Aberdeen. Founded in 1797, the Glen Garioch (pronounced glen-geerie) distillery only started producing single malt in the early 1970’s. Glen Garioch was much more popular amongst blenders, which is what helped the distillery survive the long years between. This Glen Garioch expression is bottled at cask strength from North American Oak and has been quietly maturing at the distillery since 1978. This sophisticated expression was hand selected by The Whisky Shop in October 2011.
Tasting Notes: on the nose: you’ll experience sweet notes of dried fruits, vanilla and an abundance of peppery spices, cinnamon and oak. This is closely followed by notes of a nutty nature, herbs, tobacco and dark chocolate. Rounding off the nose are light notes of peaches, stem ginger, musk and a waft of demerara sugar. On the palate: it is a little dry in texture but those sweet notes of dried fruits are ever-present, followed by vanilla, tonnes of oak, toffee and dark chocolate. There is a lovely leathery note floating around in there, alongside tobacco, cinnamon, spices, almonds and a hint of liquorice. The finish: is long, sweet and peppery, with lingering oak.
The verdict: Glen Garioch have a long history of making top quality scotch, whether it is for their own needs or the need of others. This hand selected single cask Scotch whisky is something rather special. It has a lot of rich flavours with a lot of depth that has been well-married and nicely balanced. While the ABV percentage is quite high, to really enjoy it you have to try it neat.
Info: ABV 51.7% in a 70cl bottle
Simple Sophistication: Jaeger-LeCoultre are no strangers to creating complicated timepieces but what Jaeger strive for is complexity and elegance, these two traits are more than noticeable in the Master Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar wristwatch. Jaeger-LeCoultre have united their endeavours in creating an extremely slim mechanism equipped with a complete calendar, with an arrangement that is simplistic and elegant, yet still legible.
The Master Ultra-Thin Perpetual features the same pure design, which combine classical elements with the aesthetic inspiration of the Grande Maison. The clear and distinctive layout makes reading Master Ultra-Thin easy and avoids any confusion. In addition to the hour, minute and central seconds hands, it comprises three counters dedicated to the perpetual calendar displays: the first at 9 o’clock for the day of the week; the second at 3 o’clock for the date; and the third at 6 o’clock for the month. Jaeger- LeCoultre’s distinctive signature appears below the moon phase. In addition to this comprehensive range of information, a perpetual calendar function must also indicate the current year, and on the Master Ultra-Thin Perpetual, a full four-digit display appears through a small aperture at 7 o’clock, which controls the leap year function.
Beating away at the heart of the Master Ultra-Thin Perpetual is the newly, in-house, designed calibre 868, which boasts 38-hours of power reserve and measures a mere 4.72 mm in thickness that enables the timepiece to be so thin. Measuring just 39 mm in diameter and 9.2 mm thick. While the Master Ultra-Thin Perpetual comes in three other variations this newly released stainless steel, black sunburst dial variation, is just pure simple sophistication, with subtle but noticeable elegance.
Photo Credit: Christopher Beccan. For more information, please visit the official Jaeger-LeCoultre website. Follow Haute Time on Instagram to catch all of the new releases as they happen.
