Off the Beaten Path#1. Glendullan Distillery

First of all, these sessions will not include distilleries that are closed down, and not oddballs like Mannochmore, new distilleries like Abhainn Dearg or any Grain distilleries. What I'll try to discover in these sessions are the essence of rather big distilleries that's producing a lot of single malt for blends, but are easily overlooked by both IB's when sourcing new casks and connoisseurs when purchasing single malts. Glendullan produces 3.3m litres a year, but is rarely mentioned because of its single malt bottlings. It contributes to blends like Dewars, Bell's, Johnnie Walker, Old Parr and Black & White.


Singleton of Glendullan 12yo 40% OB

The Singleton, which is a prefix which I don't really know what stands for, but I remeber other ones such as the Singleton of Auchroisk and the Singleton of Dufftown. The first one being the most attractive one I think. This has sort of an orange hue, in between gold and bronze somewhere. The smell has some green tea, garam masala, spirity, oranges, light mango juice, sweet and a bit spicy, sort of indian spices, kind of nice, apart from the dusty and spirity notes. The taste is more bitter, reminds me a bit of tonic water and fusel. It does have a nice zesty citrussy orange and melon fruitiness to it. I kind of like this funny little whisky although I'd never put it on the top shelf. This I think would be a whisky I'd happily give away to quality concerned friends just to show them that there is quality to be found from Glendullan. And then I'd just go buy another bottle, cause it's an affordable one as well.

I'm pleasantly surprised, a balanced malt: 6


Glendullan 11yo 1984-1995 43% James MacArthur's Fine Malt Selection

This one is much lighter in color than the Singleton. Yellow straws. And it's 3%abv higher, which makes me think it might be able to overcome the expectations I now have. It smells of sweet licorice, onion soup, chalk, lavender and knit. The taste is light and peppery, a bit dull this time, maybe it needs some air to open up. After a while, say 7-8 minutes, it becomes more peppery, but no other tastes appears. This one isn't directly bad, like some Littlemills or Speysides can be, but it's more in light blend territory. If you wanna fool someone into believing you're serving blended whisky, try with this one. Or serve it alongside 4 bland blends and ask which's the single malt?

A nice and light youngster, probably not worth its money: 4


Glendullan 12yo 43% OB (Green bottle, cream label w. brown letters, 80's?)

This one says to be bottled by/for MacDonald Greenlee's which was the owners of Glendullan Distillery#1. I know that #2 is the only one still intact, so this could be distilled as far back as the late 50's or early 60's. This one has a nice golden copper hue. The nose again has this chalky and dusty aroma. This one needs a lot of breathin. Eventually it turns into some nice orange marmalade, rose-mary, ginger and a bit spirity notes. The taste is just plain burnt, not my favorite so far. Maybe it needs some water. one teaspoon and 2 minutes. Now its sweeter, some burnt sugar and acetone (not that I've ever drunk it, but it's the nuance I get). This is the downfall of Glendullan so far on my part, thankfully I have a sample or two left to go.

Boring, burnt and Spirity: 2


Glendullan 25yo 1965-1990 51.1% Cadenhead's

Now, this one should be a bit different, over twice the age older than the next oldest one in this session, and distilled about 47 years ago. Could be very interesting indeed. Also bottled at cask strength, which usually is a very good sign. The color is golden and has some cask sediments. It smells big, sherried, sweet, raisins, honey, paprika, coriander, sun-dried tomatoes, cinnamon, strawberries, malt syrup, creamy and not least dusty, like bookdust from old books at the library or Augustins coffin (again, not that I have read them), or old coats from granny's closet. This is way better than the prior ones so far. The taste has a warming, rich and spicy tomato feeling, hot tomato soup or even tomatoes and chili. This one needs some water to open up. Given some water and a couple minutes to cool of in my fridge it's time to try again (Many whiskies does improve at a bit lower than room temperature). Now it shows more peppery and bitter notes, adding water was not for the better, but it's still a pleasant treat. If you ever get your chance to try this, please down it slowly without addition of water.

When neat, a remarkable whisky, when diluted, average, I score neat: 7.5


Glendullan 12yo 1997-2009 56.1% James MacArthur's Old Master's

Again a pale one from James MacArthur's, maybe it's one of those "no coloring no chill-filtration" brands, but again, who isn't these days? And that is a good thing, I hate to see the old tradition of diluting everything down to 40% to see as much profit as possible, go into the history books, but quality again a subject of much bigger importance. This one was my big hope for this session, as it's forst of all, the most recent bottling of IB caliber, and also the one with the highest strength. So, if it's by chance any good, it will make me look for another recent CS Glendullan next time I'm out shopping for whiskies. The nose is buttery, burnt and toffee-ish, lots of caramel and bitter-schnaps in this one so far. The taste is biscuity, buttery, drying, salty, but agin a bit boring. Water, please! With additional water it turns sweeter, with black pepper and malty notes, again on the simple side.

I'm thinking this is a whisky that really needs a good casks to become popular: 4



Next tasting: Off the beaten path#2