Glen Garioch 1990-2020 - 30 Year Old - Carn Mor - Celebration Of The Cask - Single Cask 20253

Founded way back in 1797, Glen Garioch is one of the classic Highland distilleries. After several changes of ownership, Glen Garioch was bought by Stanley P. Morrison of Bowmore fame in 1970 and is now part of Beam Suntory. Glen Garioch has changed stylistically in the last few decades - the distillery’s whisky was peated (sometimes very heavily) until 1975 but the smokiness was reduced thereafter and was cut altogether from 1997 onwards.

1960s-1970s vintages of Glen Garioch are famously complex, with oily, meaty, waxy, farmyard flavours often intertwined with the epic peat presence. Many of the legendary bottlings of the 1966-75 vintages also benefitted from maturation in phenomenal sherry casks. The official bottlings and the Samaroli editions of these vintages are the most highly sought-after at auction.

Càrn Mòr is a series of independent bottlings from Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers (MSWD), the family company run by Brian Morrison, the former chairman of Morrison Bowmore, and his son Jamie Morrison. The company also owns the Old Perth blended whisky brand and commenced distillation at their new Lowland distillery Aberargie in 2017.

The first Càrn Mòr whiskies were bottled in 2007/8 and the Morrisons keep up a prolific bottling schedule, with several hundred Càrn Mòr releases to date. As of 2023, Càrn Mòr have two main ranges, the Càrn Mòr Strictly Limited series of youngish small batch whiskies bottled at 47.5%, and the Càrn Mòr Celebration of the Cask series, the majority of which are much older single cask whiskies bottled at cask strength.