Glenglassaugh 1977-1991 - 13 Year Old - Cadenheads - Miniature

Glenglassaugh has been distilled only sporadically throughout its lifetime. Built in 1875, the distillery was in operation for only five years between 1908 and 1960, and was mothballed again by Highland Distillers in 1986.

Glenglassaugh restarted production in 2008 under new owners the Scaent group before being acquired in 2013 by Billy Walker’s Benriach Distillery Company. Benriach was then snapped up by Brown Forman in 2016 before Walker had had time to properly work the magic that revived Benriach and Glendronach.

With large production gaps and the new spirit from the 2008 reopening only just starting to come of age, it’s unsurprising that official bottlings of Glenglassaugh have been patchy. Both Walker and Scaent bottled some top class long-aged stock, and Walker also released a popular young peated Glenglassaugh called Torfa. Some excellent post-2008 Glenglassaughs have now started to appear from independent bottlers.

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.