Glenburgie 1978-1990 - 11 Year Old - SMWS 71.3

Glenburgie is a large Speyside distillery whose production of over 4m litres per year is almost entirely destined for the Ballantine’s blend. The distillery’s association with Ballantine’s goes back as far as the 1930s when Glenburgie was brought out of mothballs by new owner Hiram Walker. As well as its traditional pot-distilled whisky, Glenburgie made a separate spirit called Glencraig on a pair of Lomond stills from 1958-1981. Chivas Brothers (Pernod Ricard) bought Glenburgie in 2005 following a major reconstruction during which the distillery was completely demolished and rebuilt. 

Official bottlings of Glenburgie have always been extremely rare due to its importance to Ballantine’s, although a handful of new official bottlings under the Ballantine’s brand have appeared since 2017. Gordon & MacPhail have been releasing licensed bottlings of Glenburgie since the 1980s and other independent bottlings (including some excellent Glencraigs) have become more frequent in recent years.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) began in late 1970s Edinburgh when founder Pip Hills persuaded a group of friends to chip in for a cask of Glenfarclas, and was officially formalised in 1983. Today the SMWS has two venues in Edinburgh, a London bar and a string of international partnerships serving its 35,000 members. 

The Society’s whiskies are known for their unique SMWS coding system. Each cask bottled is assigned two numbers, representing the distillery and the bottling number, so 1.45 is the forty-fifth cask bottled from the first distillery and 33.27 is the 27th cask from the 33rd distillery.

Glenmorangie bought the Society in 2004, but sold it in 2015 to a private consortium who floated the SMWS on the stock market in 2021 via their holding company Artisanal Spirits Co.