Teaninich 2010-2021 - 11 Year Old - Adelphi - Single Cask 709029

Teaninich is one of Diageo’s more interesting workhorse distilleries. The distillery was almost unknown before a handful of epic early 1970s vintages were bottled for the Rare Malts series, after which Teaninich slid back into obscurity.  As far as official bottlings go, since 2000 only the worthy Flora & Fauna 10-year-old, one Managers’ Choice and one Special Release bottling have appeared, the latter a highly-rated but horribly overpriced 17-year-old from the 1999 vintage.

Teaninich’s ultra-pure, austere, grassy spirit is well-suited to long ageing but casks of old Teaninich are still very rare on the market today: despite a recent increase in the number of indie bottlings from the distillery, most are under 15 years old. Indie Teaninichs bottled in the early years of this century were often 20-30 years old or even older and are worth seeking out at auction for fans of the uncompromising old school Highland style.

The Adelphi name was revived in 1993 by Jamie Walker, the great-grandson of Archibald Walker, founder of the original 19th century Adelphi whisky distillery in Glasgow which had closed in the 1930s. 

The new Adelphi whisky company, with Charles Maclean serving as Chief Nose on the tasting panel, quickly established themselves at the forefront of the new generation of independent whisky bottlers, releasing a string of top class casks of single malt and grain whiskies, with early highlights including outstanding bottlings of long-aged Ardbeg and Springbank.

Jamie Walker sold Adelphi in 2004 to investors Keith Falconer and Donal Houston, the latter of whom is laird of Ardnamurchan Estate in the Highlands. Adelphi began construction of their Ardnamurchan distillery in 2013 and released the first Ardnamurchan single malt whisky in 2020.