Glenordie 12 Year Old - 1980s

Glen Ord is a classic Highland distillery, originally built in 1838 and now producing an enormous 11 million litres per annum, making it one of the largest distilleries in Scotland. The distillery is also home to a huge industrial maltings facility supplying malted barley to various other Diageo distilleries including Talisker.

Sadly, Glen Ord’s characterful but easy-drinking single malt has been unavailable in the UK since 2006 when it was withdrawn and repackaged for Asian markets as the Singleton of Glen Ord. This tragedy notwithstanding, the distillery’s official bottlings have a good reputation among whisky drinkers, with the old 12-year-old and the long-aged Special Release bottlings from 2003-2005 particularly popular; however, the most famous Glen Ord is undoubtedly the Samaroli 1962 Ord Bouquet 22-year-old, one of the greatest single malt whiskies ever bottled.

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.