Patience is key, especially when it comes to maturing whisky. Around this time last year, we received a sample from Rick at Single Note. It was a Glen Elgin, distilled in 2013 and matured in a first fill bourbon barrel. The question was: is this whisky ready to be bottled? And if not, what does it still need? This is exactly the beauty of Rick’s approach, he lets the community pass judgment first, and only then decides whether to bottle the whisky or not.

Our 2 cents: a beautiful flavour, slightly high in alcohol at around 61%, but that’s easy to solve. We would definitely not add a finish in another cask, that would have been a waste of the lovely and pure character this Glen Elgin already had at the time.

And so it happened, Rick gathered the community notes and decided to let the cask do its work just a little longer. He eventually bottled it in June 2025 at 55.5%. The result we can now witness, one year later.

What stands out first is its beautiful deep golden color, the cask has done its job very well. And you can taste that too. This Glen Elgin is by no means sharp or unpleasant. On the contrary, it has become a very rounded, oily whisky with a wonderful flavour. Here’s our notes:

It’s like walking in an orchard in late summer. Our previous Single Note bottlings we tasted were both from Caol Ila, Rick nailed these. But this Glen Elgin, which offers a totally different profile, is definitely right up there! Thanks Rick, keep up the good work.