Glenlivet 1974 - 24 Year Old - First Cask - Single Cask 5130

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.

The First Cask range was a prolific series of single malt whisky bottlings by the UK’s largest mail order wine company Direct Wines Ltd, owner of Laithwaite’s and The Sunday Times Wine Club. From the early 1990s until the mid-Noughties Direct Wines released dozens of outstanding single cask whiskies annually under the First Cask label, almost all of which were bottled at 46%.

These whiskies were not particularly highly sought-after on release, probably because they were only sold online through a wine club.  Back then, of course, it was not widely known that the casks had been sourced from Signatory Vintage, which would certainly have raised their profile among whisky fans. Nowadays, although still frequently excellent value at auction, the First Cask collection - which includes hundreds of long-aged whiskies from distilleries including Brora, Port Ellen, Ardbeg and Macallan - is finally getting the recognition it deserves.