Glenrothes 1991-2016 - 25 Year Old - Adelphi - Single Cask 5119

Glenrothes is a much-loved Speyside distillery with a couple of notable claims to fame, namely that it was the keystone malt for Berry Bros & Rudd’s Cutty Sark blend from its launch in the 1920s, and in the 1990s it was the first distillery to specialise in vintage single malt releases. 

Founded in 1879, Glenrothes was expanded three times between 1963 and 1989, bringing the total number of stills to ten with a hefty production capacity of over 5.5m litres per year. The spirit seems to perform best with medium to long term maturation in sherry casks.

After sporadic old vintage releases in the 1970s under Highland Distillers (later fully acquired by Edrington), Glenrothes launched a core range of vintage single malts in 1994. A string of terrific vintage releases followed, including some astonishing 1960s casks. Although the vintage range has now been dropped, Glenrothes is remarkably consistent - just about any sherried release over 15 years old is likely to be terrific whisky.

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.