Rosebank 21 Year Old - The Roses Edition 7 - Enchantment - 2023 Release

The writing was on the wall for Rosebank in 1988 when owners United Distillers preferred the less accomplished but much more tourist-friendly Glenkinchie for their new Classic Malts series. Rosebank closed in 1993, after UD balked at a £2m upgrade to the distillery’s effluent treatment facility, and soon became a cult lost distillery - the Lowland equivalent of Brora or Port Ellen. Miraculously, Diageo are now restoring both Brora and Port Ellen, while Rosebank is being rebuilt under new owners Ian MacLeod Distillers and is expected to reopen in late 2022.

Today, new bottlings of old Rosebank are dwindling, and prices have increased dramatically over the last decade. Essential official bottlings of Rosebank include the glorious 1979 and 1981 Rare Malt Editions, and the splendid Special Releases from 2007, 2011 and 2014. Indie Rosebanks from the early 1990s vintages are generally excellent and usually more affordable at auction.

Speciality Drinks Limited (SDL) was the former parent company of spirits retailer The Whisky Exchange (TWE), and was used to distinguish between the company’s retail activities as TWE and the separate on-trade distribution business. 

Speciality Drinks was also the original home of the company’s proprietary whisky and rum brands Single Malts of Scotland, Port Askaig, Elements of Islay, The Whisky Trail and Black Tot Rum. These brands were transferred by TWE’s founders to their Elixir Distillers company (also home to the recently-acquired Tormore distillery and the forthcoming Islay distillery Portintruan) prior to Pernod Ricard’s takeover of SDL/TWE in 2021.