Side by side: Independent Glenturret

@DrinkGlenturret distillery have had a bit of a renaissance since leaving the Famous Grouse stable, a new brand and new bottlings but obviously still the same liquid.

I've talked about Glenturret's recent take over and new releases before here and here, but this time I'm going to look at four independent bottlings.

Let's see what the whiskies are like:

Dram	2010 8yo (North Star Spirits)	2005 14yo (Gordon & MacPhail)	2001 14yo (Chorlton Whisky)	2001 14yo (Bartels Rawlings International)
Characteristics	58.3% ABV Natural colour, NCF Refill Hogshead 330 bottles	53.3% ABV Natural colour, NCF 1st Fill Sherry Hogshead 324 bottles	54% ABV Natural colour, NCF Port Pipe 50 bottles	54% ABV Natural colour, NCF Port Pipe 712 bottles
Bottler notes	Nose: Forest floor earthy notes and bright peels. Palate: Peanut brittle, blueberry muffins and buttery pancakes. Finish: A touch of grain sweetness, balanced by softly smoky spice.	Sherry aromas combine with toffee apple and candied orange. Rich and mouth coating dark chocolate flavours combine with stewed apple and winter spices. A drying nutty finish with citrus highlights.	None.	Nose: Strawberries and blueberries, with clove and whipped cream in support. Palate: Lots of barley notes at first, before cooked fruit and ginger notes start to develop. Finish: Fruit salad and honeyed cereals.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up and fall as slow thin legs.	Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin legs.	Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line, bead up and fall as slow thick legs.	Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line, bead up and fall as slow thick legs.
Nose	Gentle smoke, a little salinity and a some pine needle forest floor notes. There's some citrus, a little farmyard funk and and a hint of cream cheese.	Thick dunnage warehouse notes: sherried dried fruit, toffee, dates, figs, prunes and dark chocolate. Firmly in Christmassy sherry bomb territory here.	Huge forest fruit notes: strawberries, blackberries, black currents. There's some jammy blueberries and a pine needle note. A little time and air offers some citrus and a hint of Christmas spices.	Similar notes to the Chorlton but maybe a little subdued? There's all of the forest fruit and citrus notes but also some smoke and salinity hints here too.
Palate	Thick spicy arrival, citrus, salinity and a little tropical fruit. The earthy forest floor notes are here alongside some vanilla and dark chocolate. salted lemons and a lovely blanket of smoke as the liquid disappears.	Thick sweet arrival, cherry jam, honey, icing sugar and a hint of sour grapefruit citrus. The sherried dried fruit from the nose are back with toffee apples and balsamic vinegar drizzled strawberries. Dry and spicy as the liquid disappears.	Thick sweet arrival, forest fruits, berry jam and a little ginger spice. There's some tropical fruit hints, toffee and a little citrus. Very drying - oak, icing sugar and cinnamon spice.	Thick sweet arrival, forest berries, milk chocolate and spicy ginger. Immediately drying with a icing sugar and cinnamon spice. This is too similar to the Chorlton to be a coincidence - the same dram?
Finish	Lingering salinity, citrus and smoke.	Lingering dry spice, a little salinity and some citrus.	Long dry and fruity with some cinnamon spice and citrus.	Long dry and fruity with some cinnamon spice and citrus.
Overall	You'd never have guessed where the NSS was from, loads of spicy salinity and smoke - Ledaig or Glen Scotia maybe but not Glenturret. A lovely dram showing the peated distillery character at a young age - I need to get some more of this! The G&M was a typical Christmas Sherry Bomb - a little salinity and citrus added from the Glenturret new make - nice! I have a feeling the Chorlton and Bartels are the same liquid - a Port Pipe is around 550 litres which would give nearly 800 70cl bottles. Adding Chorlton's 50 to Bartels 712 puts us in that ballpark... I'm not sure if Glenturret use peated barley in all of their distillations but there were hints of smoke in the sherried and port casks. Loads in the NSS ex-bourbon. All lovely drams - worth trying if you see anything similar come up.

Many thanks to @whiskyrover, @WesWhiskyDave, @WhiskynStuff and @WhiskyResource respectively for the sample swaps!