A 33 Year Old from Glenturret is, by definition, a whisky from a very different era of the distillery. It would have been distilled in the late 1980s, when Glenturret was still under earlier ownership — long before the Lalique/Hansch acquisition of 2019 and Bob Dalgarno's arrival as master whisky maker. What reaches the bottle today is the work of a patient cellar, not of current production.
Released as part of Glenturret's prestige age-statement line under its current custodianship, the 33 is bottled without chill-filtration at a natural strength just under 42% — the gentle decline one expects after three decades of evaporation in a Highland warehouse. The presentation, in Lalique-associated packaging, signals where on the shelf this is meant to sit.
The nose opens slowly: beeswax and old paper, dried stone fruit, a hint of sandalwood and then, surprisingly, a whisper of coastal air. The palate is where its age is most eloquent — silken rather than oily, with honeycomb, stewed apple, polished oak and a quiet tannic frame that never overwhelms. The finish is long and aristocratic, turning gradually drier on tobacco and bitter orange.
At this age the question is rarely whether a whisky is good; it is whether it still has something to say. This one does. Duncan's verdict: a dignified survivor from an older Crieff, and one of the more articulate expressions of what very long Highland maturation can do when the casks were well chosen in the first place.
