Scotland, Speyside: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes

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Glenburgie

Description of the whisky

The distillery

Glenburgie distillery

Glenburgie Distillery
Forres,
Morayshire
IV36 OQY
+44 1343 850 258

Owner: Pernod-Ricard
Creation date 1810

The distillery is supposed to have been build in 1810 (a copper plate on the building behind the current distillery says :“This building was build in 1810. The upper floor contained the distillery and customs and excise offices and the lower ground floor the original distillery warehouse”) but it appears from the archives that the construction of the distillery did not happen earlier than 1829, when William Paul initiated the whisky production on the site.
The distillery was called Kilnflat in those days, and William Paul remained the owner of the distillery up to 1871. Whisky production has been stopped in 1878.
The same year, the distillery has been renamed in Glenburgie, and the manager was Charles Hay. Alexander Fraser took the distillery over in 1895, and founded a Limited company to own it.
The distillery was bankrupted in 1925, because it could not resist to the crisis who caused the ruin of many a distillery in those days. A attorney from Elgin, Donald Mustard became the owner of Glenburgie after this bankruptcy.
George Ballantine & Son took the distillery over in 1936. The Ballantine company belonged to Hiram Walker which would become part of Allied Distillers some years later. Allied Distillers is still the current owner.
In 1936 Glenburgie was the first distillery ever to be managed by a lady. Margaret Nicol was indeed the first woman to have a managing function in the whisky world. She retired in 1959.
Back in 1936, the distillery has been refurbished and its production capacity was doubled in 1957. In the same period, the malting floors have been closed, and two Lomond stills have been installed. They have been in use up to 1981, when they were replaced by traditional pot stills.
This Lomond stills were used to produce a malt called Glencraig, named after the Ballantine's manager, William Craig.
Whisky produced by Glenburgie is essentially used in blends, specially in those of Teacher's and Ballantine's.

The whisky

A propos des notes de dégustation Your own tasting notes

List of the bottles

Description of the distillery

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Glenburgie independent bottlers

Glencraig
33 years
Duncan Taylor. The Rarest of the Rare


Age
33 years
Alcohol percentage
40,1%
Bottler
Duncan Taylor
Particularity
Single cask
Cask strength
=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros< 25 euros
Glencraig 33 DC
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Glenburgie
Gordon & MacPhail Reserve
13 years


Age
13 years
Alcohol percentage
57,9%
Bottler
Gordon & MacPhail
Particularity
Single cask
Cask strength
=25 euros=25 euros< 25 euros
 
 
A remarkable bottling from the very first nosing. A great Speyside with sherry hints. The taste is really smooth and pleasant, despite the high alcohol degree, and a slight sherry hint is associated to really nice balanced malted touches. A exceptionally long finish. The colour  gives away the Gordon & MacPhail's usage to add caramel to their bottlings... An excellent bottle in a very good although recent collection.
17/20
A rather fresh nose marked by sherry on a background of malt and wet wood, followed in the palate by a very pleasant taste on a malt background with strong hints of sherry. Remote citrus fruit touches make it a remarkably complex but also perfectly balanced whisky. A rather long finish, recalling the sherry.
18/20
A very smooth nose, marked by both sherry and ripe fruits, nicely perfumed and with no aggressivity at all. In the palate, a very nice evolution from ripe pears to fine wood hints, a touch of sweet citrus, to end on very nice malty notes. Nice complexity, and the high percentage of alcohol is really not obvious, because the whole is so nice and harmonious and smooth. The finish begins on a very warm impression, recalling the presence of alcohol, than developes quite long on nice touches, close to those the mouth detected earlier, and at the end a very warm feeling comes an completes the whole.
18/20
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Speyside

Speyside Map

The Speyside area is situated at the North of the Cairngorm mountain and goes to the Moray firth. It is delimited by two rivers: the Findhorn at the West side and the Deveron on the East side.
The area is named after the river Spey. Most of the distilleries take their water in one of its affluents; the Fiddich, the Livet or the Avon.
About sixty distilleries from Speyside are described on this site.

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Click on the map for a list of the distilleries of the area, on the title for further information
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