Glentauchers 1981 - 25 Year Old - First Cask - Single Cask 1054

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.

The First Cask range was a prolific series of single malt whisky bottlings by the UK’s largest mail order wine company Direct Wines Ltd, owner of Laithwaite’s and The Sunday Times Wine Club. From the early 1990s until the mid-Noughties Direct Wines released dozens of outstanding single cask whiskies annually under the First Cask label, almost all of which were bottled at 46%.

These whiskies were not particularly highly sought-after on release, probably because they were only sold online through a wine club.  Back then, of course, it was not widely known that the casks had been sourced from Signatory Vintage, which would certainly have raised their profile among whisky fans. Nowadays, although still frequently excellent value at auction, the First Cask collection - which includes hundreds of long-aged whiskies from distilleries including Brora, Port Ellen, Ardbeg and Macallan - is finally getting the recognition it deserves.