Glenlivet 15 Travel retail vs French Oak Reserve

[charlano]

I have searched the web alot about that but couldn't find any answer. What are the differences (if any) between Glenlivet 15 (Travel retail edition) and the Glenlivet 15 French Oak Reserve. There is no "French Oak Reserve" statement on the Travel retail edition.

[charlano]

It's a real mystery !

[AdamMY]

It is often hard to say without having actually tried both of them side by side. Did you check Glenlivets website to see if they mention their Travel retail at all on their site? Although most items for sale in Duty Free shops are either tester products, or other sorts of limited runs.

[charlano]

Tried both this last weekend. My verdict is that it's the same expression. While the smell is almost the same, there is a little bit more fuity sweetness in the TR version and also a stronger bite in the mouth. That are the kind of variations we could get on two bottles of same expression that we get from a year to another.

I had already had much more variations while tasting two bottles of exactly the same expression side by side at the point where it could have been two different expression. The best example coming to my mind is the Laphroaig Quarter Cask, which seems to vary a lot from bath to batch.

I will surely revisit both glenlivet side by side soon.