Glenglassaugh distillery

Glenglassaugh is a spicy and lightly maritime Highland Whisky, which is characterized by a very beery-fruity basic character. The Glenglassaugh Revival is a great example of the character of the distillery.

Glenglassaugh Whisky

The Glenglassaugh whisky distillery is a true ‘Coastal’ malt whisky Distillery located in the Scottish Highlands. The distillery is located just outside the small town of Portsoy and should actually belong to the Speyside region but is counted among the Highlands. The closest distilleries are Glen Deveron and Banff.

Glenglassaugh has spent a large amount of its time closed, the distillery was mothbolled most recently in 1986. It wasn’t until December 2008 that the distillery reopened after it being purchased by the Scaent group For £5 million. Glenglassaugh has been part of The BenRiach Distillery Company since 2013 alongside Benriach and Glendronach, the company has been part of Brown-Forman’s portfolio (Jack Daniel’s producer) since 2016.

Upon approach the distilleries large warehoueses can be seen towering by the. The entire distillery feels extremely ‘remote’ location in part because it is. A little further west the River Spey flows into the North Sea and east of Banff the River Deveron meanders to the North Sea.

House style

While the distillates from the earlier Glenglassaugh distillery have captured an audience there is a massive 22-year hole in stock. Consequently the distilleries releases are being carefully balanced between very infrequent bottlings of older stock and much younger, newer distillates. As such there are two distinct whiskies to discuss, and it and has both smoky and non-smoky variants within its range.

As Glenglassaugh is a coastal distillery its maturing stock bears a coastal note more prevelent in younger than older expressions. Both are sweet and fruity though younger offerings are much sharper.

The non-peated Glenglassaugh single malt expressions are characterized by strong fruit and berry notes, with underlying spice. The peated offerings are best defined by tea, caramel, citrus and nuts combined with herbal and ‘meaty’ scents in the nose.

Production of Glenglassaugh whisky

How is Glenglassaugh Whisky produced? Glenglassaugh uses and old Porteus mill, produces with an iron mashtun, 4 wooden and 2 stainless steel washbacks and a pair of steam heated Stills.

The distillery has massively expanded the production volume in recent years. The production volume was 1.1 million liters of pure alcohol in 2013. While most of the production is produced from unpeated malt, about 30,000 liters of pure alcohol are distilled using malt peated to 30ppm every year.

Recommendations

As Glenglassaugh did not produce whisky from 1986 to 2008, the stocks of old whiskies are limited. It is to be expected that the older inventories will come onto the market similar to Benriach or Glendronach in the form of special, limited Vintages.

As a result of the scarcity of older whiskies, the current standard whiskies of the distillery are of young age.

• The Glenglassaugh Revival is 3 years old with a 6-month finish in Oloroso sherry barrels.
• The Glenglassaugh Evolution, only slightly older, comes from American oak barrels and is bottled with 50% alcohol content.
• In 2014, the standard range was then supplemented by the peated Glenglassaugh Torfa, matured in ex-Bourbon barrels and bottled at 50% abv.

History of Glenglassaugh distillery

Construction of Glenglassaugh started on Craig Mills Farm near Portsoy in 1873 and was completed two years later. It was built as a Glenglassaugh Distillery Company by the local wine & liquor dealer James Moir.

In earlier years, production at Glenglassaugh was suspended. From 1907 to 1931 and then again from 1936 until the renovation in 1960 when Glenglassaugh was completely rebuilt. The closure in 1986 was only intended to be temporary, but it lasted until December 2008. During which time the distillery was acquired by Highland Distillers in the 1990s.

On March 22, 2013, the Benriach Distillery Company announced that it had bought Glenglassaugh from Lumiere Holdings in Amsterdam. In April 2016, Glenglassaugh was sold together with along with Benriach and Glendronach to Brown-Forman(USA), which produces Jack Daniel’s and Finlandia Vodka.

Glenglassaugh factsheet