Glentauchers 2007-2020 - 13 Year Old - Distillery Reserve Collection - Single Cask 44500

A substantial but low-profile Speyside distillery producing fresh, clean, floral Speyside for its owners’ blends, Glentauchers started life with two stills in 1898 but was expanded to its current six stills in the mid-1960s. After a long period under DCL ownership Glentauchers was purchased in 1989 by Allied Distillers (now owned by Pernod Ricard) and has been a keystone malt for Ballantine’s ever since. In 2020 it was revealed that Glentauchers would be switching to biofuel with the goal of attaining carbon neutrality.

Official bottlings of Glentauchers were practically non-existent until a few years ago but are now released under the Ballantine’s Series label. Gordon & MacPhail have been the de facto official bottlers for Glentauchers for decades, with licensed bottlings appearing in the Distillery Labels range and cask strength vintage editions in the Connoisseurs Choice and Private Collection series.

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.