For today’s review I’ll be having a closer look at the Dramfool Glenmarvellous 5. Last week me and my drambuddies had the honour to sit down with Bruce and Colin from Dramfool to try their latest Glenmarvellous release.
As many of you will know, a lot of distilleries don’t allow independent bottlers to use the distillery name on their bottles. One of the most notewhorthy examples of that is this family owned Speyside distillery, that still uses direct fire stills. Glenmarvellous is the name that Dramfool uses for bottlings from this particular distillery, and they even got that name trademarked! I can understand why, it’s a great name!
In my opinion that name does bring a burden with it as well though, as the dram needs to live up to the name! Luckily enough though, Dramfool only ever bottles a whisky when they absolutely love it themselves. And so far, I can’t say I disagree with their palate!
Since we already tried this dram live on YouTube and Instagram I’d love to invite you all to have a look at our channel there and make sure to watch the episode to get some of the tasting notes from all five of us! But since time is always limited when going live, and this dram evoked so many more tasting notes in me then I was able to share live, I thought I’d add my personal tasting notes to the blog as well!
Tasting Notes – Dramfool Glenmarvellous #5
ABV: 61,8% (123,6 proof)
Age: 12 years old
Distillery: Glenfarclas
Chill-filtered: No
Natural Colour: Yes
Nose:
Heaps of dark fruit are immediately available on the nose, but they’re balanced by some serious funk. Live on the show I described it as Shropshire Blue cheese and I’m sticking with that note today. The dark fruits remind me of a port syrup, filled with cranberries, strawberries, dried figs and ripe plums. There’s a certain dustiness to this dram as well. Like an old room with wooden furniture that hasn’t been opened in a while.
Palate:
Ooh yeah, there’s that port syrup and Shropshire Blue again. And I’m over the moon that these notes found their way onto the palate. There’s some lovely chili pepper to this dram as well and a heap of notes such as dried figs, nutmeg, and toasted granola. Some salmiak appears as well, giving even more complexity to the palate of this Dramfool Glemarvellous #5.
Finish:
The finish is superbly long, with much more focus on that salmiak note I loved so much on the palate. But there’s new layers of fruit taking centre stage here as well. Most notably sultana’s and wild peaches. The almost sticky mouthfeeling from the palate fades a bit though and in the end this mouthcoating dram does finish rather dry.
Verdict:
Other than a tad to dry of a finish to this dram, there’s absolutely nothing I don’t like about this dram! It’s intriguing, complex and funky! I really do adore that port syrup x Shropshire Blue note and dried figs are always a welcome tasting note in my book. I might just have to pick up a bottle of this!