Glendullan 1978-1995 - 17 Year Old - Cadenheads - Miniature

A large Speyside workhorse distillery in Diageo’s portfolio, Glendullan was founded in 1897 and expanded with the construction of a second distillery onsite in 1972. Both Glendullan distilleries were in operation until 1985, when the original Glendullan was closed.

Prior to Glendullan’s coronation as the US representative of The Singleton family in 2007, official bottlings were quite rare. Glendullan was bottled as a 12-year-old by DCL subsidiary Macdonald Greenless from the 1970s onwards, with both 43% and 47% versions in existence, but these were replaced by the 43% Flora & Fauna 12-year-old in 1991. 

At auction, the 1970s vintage Glendullans bottled for the Rare Malts series are well worth checking out, as are the Glendullan Centenary bottling from 1998 and the famous sherried Glendullan 18-year-old Manager’s Dram released in 1989. Some superb 1960s vintage Glendullans have been independently bottled by Cadenhead’s and Douglas Laing.

In 1842 George Duncan established a wine merchant and distillery agency business in Aberdeen. Duncan was joined in the early 1850s by his brother-in-law William Cadenhead, who took over the business after Duncan’s death in 1858, changing the company’s name to Wm. Cadenhead. When Cadenhead died in 1904 the company passed to his nephew Robert Duthie, who developed the spirits side of the business.

Duthie died suddenly in 1931, and employee Ann Oliver was put in charge of Cadenhead’s. Sadly, Oliver’s tenure ended in financial difficulty and on her retirement in 1972 the business was forced to sell its entire inventory. Cadenhead’s was acquired soon afterwards by J & A Mitchell, proprietors of Springbank distillery, who relocated the business to Campbeltown. Cadenhead’s has flourished under Mitchell’s stewardship, releasing many legendary single malt bottlings in the 1980s and 1990s and now has outlets in Edinburgh and London as well as Campbeltown.