New Booze: The Glenlivet Nadurra Triumph

My favorite of the Glenlivet single-malt scotch range is the Nadurra, the non-chill-filtered, natural cask strength, 16-year-old expression. It has a nose of Dole fruit cocktail spilled onto a bed a straw and on the palate tastes like tropical trail mix, complete with the dried coconut, apricot, and other fruits on top of honey and whatever grain granola is made out of. I fell in love with it at first sip.

The new booze is the limited-edition The Glenlivet Nadurra Triumph, which is 18 years old, distilled in 1991 from Triumph barley that is no longer used in the production of range. The nose of this is more buttery and apricots-in-sryup instead of the whole fruit cocktail (with an overall flavor reminiscent of peach cobbler with whipped cream), with a palate more woody (old hay) spicy (red pepper, pimento) and nutty (almonds, pecans) and less alive and fruity than the 16-year-old.  

While the Nadurra 16-year-old may falter on being a little too sweet-tasting (or young) on the palate, the Triumph to me is a little past its prime. (I mixed the two together as an experiment and let's just say that is not the right answer to the question.) Overall I enjoy the standard Nadurra 16-year more than the Triumph, but let's not consider this a bad review of the Triumph but a reminder of how tasty the standard Glenlivet Nadurra is.