Glenlivet 1954-1981 - 27 Year Old - Cadenheads Dumpy

One of Scotland’s iconic distilleries, Glenlivet is currently the joint largest single malt whisky distillery in Scotland at 21m litres per annum. The distillery was expanded in 2010, raising the number of stills to fourteen, before the construction of a third stillhouse in 2018 brought the total number of stills to 28. Having achieved production parity with Glenfiddich, Glenlivet is now catching their rival in sales terms as well and may soon become the biggest-selling single malt whisky in the world. 

Glenlivet has rarely been independently bottled, but the official releases are sufficiently plentiful and diverse that this isn’t an issue. Glenlivet ages well in both bourbon and sherry casks, and a raft of official releases at various strengths, ages and cask types are available to satisfy the pickiest whisky buyers. At auction the old 1950s and 1960s vintages bottled for the Cellar Collection are always worth looking out for.

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.