Glenglassaugh Revival

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.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.