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Contemporary Urban Distillers
The Glasgow Distillery Company has been producing its spirit in the southside of Scotland’s largest city since 2015. This isn’t a wee highland still, surrounded by trickling streams and towering mountains, it’s a modern, urban distillery, that resides in an industrial estate that even the most dedicated of Glaswegians would struggle to romanticise. Looks aren’t everything, though. It’s flavour that ultimately counts when it comes to whisky and Glasgow Distillery has achieved an impressive degree of consistency since its debut landed in 2018.
As well as producing gin, vodka and rum, the distillery makes three versions of its 1770 single malt. There’s the unpeated original, a triple distilled version and the peated variety. Each iteration brings something different to the party and gives the distillery team a wider spectrum of flavours to play with when it comes to bottling time.
Glasgow recently launched another round of its Small Batch Series. There’s an unpeated original, finished in a beer cask, a triple distilled, finished in cognac casks and a peated version, finished in Hungarian Tokaji wine casks. Read on for my thoughts on each dram…
*Full disclosure: the samples featured in this review were sent to me free of charge. As always, I will strive to give an honest opinion on the drams and the value for money they represent.
Unpeated Golden Beer Finish – Batch 2
Unpeated spirit, matured in first fill ex-bourbon casks and finished for one year in a PX cask that held Innis & Gunn Golden Beer. Bottled at 58%.
Smell: An interesting and layered nose. First you pick up lots of toffee and a bready, baking spice note. Full of rye bread, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Underneath that, there’s vanilla, caramel and subtle citrus. Dig even deeper and there’s some grassy, malty notes too.
Taste: Big arrival with toffee apples and ginger loaf. Nutmeg. Sultanas. Touch of citrus. Then pepper and oak before a dry, beery finish. Water brought out caramel and fresh apple – and toned down the peppery heat.
Thoughts: There’s so much flavour on offer here. Most cask finishes are used to spruce up whisky that’s slept in refill casks without picking up much of an effect but Glasgow layer their finish over the not insubstantial impact of first fill casks. The effect is more cask influence that you’d expect from whisky of this young age. Somehow, it doesn’t feel too much though and while there isn’t an abundance of spirit character coming through, it’s interesting to be able to taste the three different varieties and try and pick out some differences. The unpeated Golden Beer Cask is medium-bodied and fully flavoured. For me, a little better with a splash of water, but no shame in that at 58%. The beer is noticeable without dominating and works well with the profile of those bourbon casks. Enjoyable dram.
Price: £64. Probably a fair price and still lower than some of the single cask or small batch releases put out there by other new distilleries.
Triple Distilled Cognac Cask Finish – Batch 1
Triple distilled spirit, matured in first-fill ex-bourbon and finished in French Cognac casks. Bottled at 52%.
Smell: Caramel. Peanuts. Lemon & lime. Touch of grassy straw and barley malt. There’s a slight furniture polish or varnish note. Almost solvent-like. Also some coconut and almond. Toffee and vanilla fudge. Some light spices… pepper and cinnamon. Triple Distilled Glasgow always reminds me of pickled jalapenos for some reason.
Taste: Big caramel arrival with some nuttiness and a wee bit of coconut. Some sweet shortbread and vanilla. Then some lemon & lime bringing a touch of acidity to go with all the sweetness. Also some gentle spices and a bit of new oak before a burst of orchard fruits going into the finish.
Thoughts: Lighter bodied than the previous dram but retains an impressive oiliness – something I don’t imagine is particularly easy to do with a triple distilled malt. Once again, the balance between the first fill bourbon and the finish is impressively handled but in this case, there also seems to be a bit of breathing space for the spirit. I often pick up a slight acidity from Glasgow’s Triple Distilled spirit – like those lime and pickled jalapeno notes – and that also seems to work quite well with the cognac. I think I probably preferred the Golden Beer cask’s overload of flavour but this is another fine dram in its own right.
Price: £59. Again, no complaints here. Fully flavoured, naturally presented, craft whisky at a decent enough price.
Peated Tokaji Cask Finish – Batch 1
Peated whisky, matured in virgin oak and finished in a Hungarian Tokaji wine cask. Bottled at 53.4%.
Smell: Struck matches and chimney smoke. Coal fires. But also glacé cherries and raspberry sauce. Orange zest. Marmalade and honey. Mixed peppercorns. Cinnamon and ginger.
Taste: More of the marmalade note – the kind with peel in. Heather honey. Followed by charcoal and black pepper. A touch of sea salt and then a big, smoke cloud on the finish. There’s also some overripe fruits and layers of virgin oak spice. The finish is long, smoky and dry.
Thoughts: The combination of peated spirit, virgin oak casks and Tokaji wine has given this dram masses of flavour and the wonderful oiliness on the palate gives it the ability to thoroughly coat the mouth. Tokaji casks are a relatively new addition to the Scotch whisky world but this expression perfectly demonstrates the reason for their popularity. There are some similarities to Sauternes casks but in this case, it comes across much darker and richer and that pairs very well with the peated spirit. The balance, once again, is spot on and we get more of the spirit this time, because the peat gives it enough punch to break through all the cask influence. It’s almost comically big in flavour but it’s tons of fun.
Price: £59. I’ve paid a lot more and got a lot less in the past. Not a dram for those who like lighter, delicate styles, but an absolute winner for those who like them big and bold.
Conclusions?
Three cracking drams, all with something different to offer. As something of a peat junkie, my money would go on the Tokaji offering but there’s something for everyone here and good quality across the board.
For more on Glasgow 1770 visit here
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