Glenglassaugh 1984 - Queen Of The Moorlands - Rare Cask - Single Cask

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.

The Queen of the Moorlands whiskies were a range of bottlings released between 2004-2013 by The Wine Shop in Leek, an independent off license run by husband and wife team David and Leonie Wood. The range was discontinued when the pair sold their shop business and moved to Islay to work for Diageo and Kilchoman, but their whiskies have performed well at auction ever since.

Although relatively short-lived, the Queen of the Moorlands bottlings were generally of very high quality: of the 40 or so bottlings that appeared, almost all were bottled at 46% or cask strength without colouring or chill filtration. A 1991 Bowmore and 1982 Caol Ila were among highlights from the range, which also included a superb 35-year-old Strathisla.