Glenturret

Region: Southern Highlands

Owner: Glenturret Holdings

Founded: 1775

There are a number of things about the Glenturret distillery that, frankly, just don’t add up! Firstly, its founding date. Like many distilleries they appear to be playing a bit fast and loose with their history. They claim to be the oldest distillery in Scotland because the distillery was built on the site of an illicit still known as the Hosh, maybe someone misheard and the still was actually called the ‘Tosh!’ Anyway, legal distilling at the Hosh didn’t begin until 1818, when John Drummond took out a license. It isn’t until 1875 that the distillery becomes Glenturret, which even then isn’t a brand-new name as there was allegedly a Glenturret distillery operating nearby until sometime around 1852. So, as you can see this idea of being founded in 1775 is a bit spurious, but I can overlook historical inaccuracy because as I often say it’s ‘the juice in the bottle’ that is the most important thing.

Back in the day, there was just the one bottling of Glenturret available and that was a pretty 10 year old. Since then, the range has undergone some changes, including a brief spell of no-age statement releases when it was owned by Edrington. However, with its sale to Glenturret Holding, a joint venture between luxury goods business Lalique Group and Swiss entrepreneur Hansjörg Wyss, Lalique’s second-largest shareholder, it has once again changed.

This new range conceived in 2020, and overseen by former Macallan colleagues Bob Dalgarno (Glenturret master blender) and Ken Grier (strategic consultant) features a bottling called Triple Wood, which comprises spirit matured in three cask types, obviously – Bourbon, European Sherry, American Sherry. There is also a 12, 15. 25 and 30 year old. They have also started bottling their peated spirit which when sold to the Independent bottling companies is called Ruadh Maor, but the distillery just call it peat smoke.

(Image Copyright James Mortimer Photography)