Glen Elgin White Horse - Circa 1990

Founded in 1898, Glen Elgin distillery was taken over by Diageo forerunners Distillers Company Limited in 1930 and was immediately licensed to their recently-acquired subsidiary White Horse Distillers, where it has been one of the keystone malts for the White Horse blend ever since.

Glen Elgin’s importance to White Horse, one of the world’s biggest Scotch whisky brands, has meant that official bottlings of the distillery’s single malt have always been thin on the ground. A 12-year-old edition bearing the White Horse logo was bottled in the 1970s and 1980s, and a pair of famous Manager’s Dram sherry casks followed in 1988 and 1993.

Today, as in the ‘70s, the only ongoing official Glen Elgin is the 12-year-old, although there have been three Special Releases outings this century. Independent bottlings of Glen Elgin are widely available and generally very good quality.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.