Glengoyne 21 Year Old - 2020s

One of Scotland’s finest unsung distilleries, Glengoyne has long been beloved by whisky connoisseurs. Situated right on the border with the Lowlands, Glengoyne is nevertheless a Highland whisky and has made a virtue of using unpeated barley for its ultra-clean spirit, much of which is matured in sherry casks.

Owners Ian Macleod Distillers keep up an impressive rate of new official bottlings from Glengoyne, which was for many years the undisputed star distillery in their portfolio before the acquisition of Rosebank in 2017. A great number of single cask Glengoynes are bottled to complement the standard range of age statement bottlings, of which the 12-year-old and the 21-year-old remain the value standouts. Independently-bottled Glengoyne is rare but some great versions have appeared from Douglas and Hunter Laing, Elixir Distillers and Malts of Scotland.

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.