Built just before the turn of the 20th Century, Glentauchers has always been a Speyside malt used for blends.
Occasional indie releases can be found, let's see what they are like!
Built near a railway line in a field of the Tauchers farm in 1898 by James Buchanan & Company, Glentauchers provided malt for its Buchanan’s and Black & White blends. The company merged with Distillers Company Limited in 1925 but after expansion in 1966 which added four stills, the distillery was mothballed in 1985. Allied Distillers bought the distillery in 1989, restarting production in 1992, before they were taken over by Chivas Brothers in 2005 - the malt now being used in the Ballantine's, Chivas Regal and Teacher's blends.
Glentauchers is still a fully manually operated distillery and is used as a training facility for Pernod Ricard staff.
There have been occasional distillery releases, under the Ballantine’s brand, but most releases are either from Gordon & MacPhail or SMWS.
A stainless steel full lauter mash tun is used to make the unpeated wash. Six Oregon pine washbacks ferment the wash for around 60 hours.
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| Photo: Words of Whisky |
Three Wash stills and three Spirit stills, with down angled lyne arms, use shell and tube condensers to distil a new make to around 68% ABV.
So which Independent Bottlers are we trying today?
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| That Boutique-y Whisky Company bottles limited edition single malts, single grains and bourbons from a variety of renowned distilleries as well as producing award-winning blended malts and blends. These whiskies are adorned with cultish graphic novel-style labels that feature prominent figures from the whisky industry, tales from the histories of certain distilleries. | Gordon and MacPhail opened their premises on South Street, Elgin on the 24th May 1895. The company was founded by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail and they decreed their product would be ‘a superior article at a popular price’. | North Star Spirits is a Glasgow based independent whisky bottler priding itself on bottling the finest single malt scotch whisky, blended malt scotch whisky & blended scotch whisky. They specialise in artisan single cask whisky from all regions of Scotland. | Chorlton Whisky is an independent bottler based in Manchester, founded in 2016. They take inspiration from Medieval and Renaissance illustrators for their bottle labels. |
Let's see how their whiskies taste:
| Dram | Batch 8 21yo [TBWC] | 1991 25yo Single Cask #6963 [Gordon & MacPhail] | 2008 10yo [North Star Spirits] | 1997 21yo [Chorlton Whisky] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | 47.1% ABV 803 bottles | 56.4% ABV Refill American Hogshead 216 bottles | 59.2% ABV Refill Hogshead + Bordeaux Barrique Finish 315 bottles | 40.8% ABV Pedro Ximénez Octave 73 bottles |
| Bottler notes | Nose: Salted caramel, chocolate digestive and red apples, then morello cherry jam, nutty barley and a helping of fresh vanilla beans and oak chips. Palate: Marmalade on brown toast with a little melted butter and dried fruit. Burnt sugar, citrus and a little garden herb emerge, with plenty of oak spice prickling away throughout. Finish: Bread and butter pudding and a hint of struck match. | WhiskyShop Exclusive Nose: Honey. Chewy lemon & lime sweets with peach cobbler covered in toffee sauce Taste: Warm lemon meringue pie and cinnamon topped oranges. Melted toffee over brandy snap ginger biscuits. Finish: Citrus soaked warm pastry. | Nose: a busy sommelier's apron & rosehips. Palate: McCowan's Highland Toffee. Finish: A decent desert wine washed down with a crispy crème brulee. | A rich and darkly sherried old chap, this, but with a lovely red fruity freshness to it and a soft, chewy mouthfeel. Hints of Turkish Delight, and milk chocolate in the aftertaste. This is the one for when you need a really classy after-dinner whisky. |
| My thoughts: | ||||
| Appearance |  | |||
| Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line, slowly bead up and fall as slow thick lines. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls leave a hairline crack in the glass which take an age to bead up and fall as slow thin legs. | Dark gold in the glass, swirls leave a hairline crack in the glass which take an age to bead up and fall as slow thin legs. | Dark bronze in the glass, swirls leave a thin line in the glass which slowly bead up and fall as slow thin legs. | |
| Nose | Orchard fruit - apples pears, cherries; cereal notes and a hint of peppery spice. Vanilla custard and almonds after a little air. | Slightly musty cereal, oak, honey, stewed orchard fruit - apples, pears, apricots covered in vanilla custard. Some toffee and citrus notes after a little time and air. | Completely different from the previous two - red berries and a hint of smoke - strawberries, tart raspberries; a little bbq steak. Some dried fruit and cinnamon spice notes after a little time and air. | A proper sherry bomb - thick strawberry jam, dried fruit, milk chocolate and some citrus peel. Honey adds some sweetness and the spice come from the cinnamon. A little time and air offers ginger cake and Turkish Delight notes. |
| Palate | Sweet oily arrival immediately followed by a huge spicy bite. Honey and brown sugar followed by black pepper and cinnamon. A few more sips offer the orchard fruit from the nose and a citrus fizz - lemon zest. Drying oak notes as the liquid disappears. | Thick mouth coating arrival, a little sweetness but mostly drying spice and bitter dark chocolate. There's some orange & ginger cake (is that a thing?) a little honey and some lemon zest. Further sips seem to strip more moisture from the mouth, there is a little dry peach skin in here too. | Again thick and mouth coating, dry and spicy. Huge berry and cherry notes - the steak from the nose is back alongside a glass of full bodied dry red wine. Further sips enhance the cherry and dry oak notes with that ever present cinnamon spice. | Another thick mouth coating arrival, strawberry toffee and prunes camp out on your tongue. The orchard fruit and spice from the distillery character have all but disappeared as has the spice notes. A few more sips offer burnt sugar, caramel and drying oak. |
| Finish | Lingering dry oak, some peppery spice and a sweet honey note. | Very dry oak and cinnamon spice. | Lingering berries, smoke and dry spice. | Medium length sweet toffee and strawberry notes with a hint of oaky spice. |
| Overall | The TBWC at 21 years in what I assumed to have been ex-bourbon is probably showing the distillery character - sweet and spicy with orchard fruit and a hint of citrus, drying oak at the end. The G&M is a little older and quite a bit stronger - there's the same sweet and spicy characteristics but the dryness has been turned up a notch. North Star have finished their bottling in red wine casks, I can't find out for how long but it has had a huge impact on the whisky - berries, smoke and a Mortlach-like meatiness, it's also half the age of the previous two. The Chorlton is a completely different beast altogether - bottled just in time at 40.8% this barely legal octave finished whisky offers a completely different experience. The nose suggest sherry bomb but the palate is more refined and complex - sherry notes and stoned fruit aplenty. Just taking the first two to start with there is some good well aged spirit here - I'm guessing this kind of age isn't used in the standard Ballantine's but kept for the older aged bottlings - I have a few of them to try for a future blog. The wine finish and octave completely change the spirit and to be honest it isn't recognisable as Glentauchers but they are good. Four really nice drams, my preference would be with the TBWC bottling but it's worth hunting out some of these or other indie expressions from this distillery if you can. | |||
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