Category Archives: Glenlossie

Glenlossie 9, 2008 (Signatory for Binny’s)

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Here to close out the month in booze reviews is another Speyside malt, and another bottled from a hogshead by Signatory for Binny’s in Chicago (see here for Monday’s Mortlach). Let’s get right to it.

Glenlossie 9, 2008 (59.2%; Signatory for Binny’s; hogshead 10520; from a bottle split)

Nose: A lovely fresh mix of honey, lemon, cereals, toasted oak and a bit of freshly cut grass. On the second sniff the lemon is joined by tart-sweet apple and some pineapple. As it sits, there’s sweeter fruit (peach). , A few drops of water and the peach expands, picking up some Korean pear.

Palate: Comes in as indicated by the nose but in a brighter, more acidic avatar. Hot but approachable at full strength; oily texture. The fruit gets sweeter here too with time. Continues in this tasty vein. Okay, let’s see what water does for it. It pushes the acid back a bit and emphasizes the sweeter fruit and the oak. Continue reading →

Glenlossie 19, 1997 (Alexander Murray)

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Here to close out the week and the month is yet another whisky from a distillery with “Glen” in its name. This time it’s Glenlossie. It’s yet another relatively obscure distillery of which I have little experience or knowledge—this is only my fifth review of a whisky from Glenlossie. I know they’re located in the Speyside and that they produce spirit for Diageo’s blends. I also know very little about the bottler, Alexander Murray, a relatively recent entrant into the independent bottling ranks. From their website it appears they are based in the US—it also seems to say that the company was “born in 1911” but there’s no further explanation of what that means, or indeed any other history provided. Who knows, maybe they only mean that some guy named Alexander Murray was born in 1911. What is history anyway? As Loch Lomond will tell you, it’s just a story and you can move dates and names around as you see fit: no one will care. Anyway, let’s see what this whisky from an obscure distillery, released by an obscure bottler is like. Continue reading →

Glenlossie 35, 1975 (The Whisky Agency)

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I started the month with a review of the then oldest Glenlossie I’d ever had—a 29 yo from a bourbon cask. Here now to close the month is a review of what is now the oldest Glenlossie I’ve ever had—a 35 yo, also from a bourbon cask. This was bottled by the Whisky Agency for Shinanoya in Tokyo. I got a sample of it from my friend Nick in Minneapolis a few years ago and completely forgot about it before finding it last month during my ongoing cull of the vast hoard of samples I’d accumulated over the years. I’ve tasted it before at one of our friend Rich’s whisky gatherings up in the Ciites. I remember liking it a lot but those sessions usually involve a fair number of over-the-top whiskies and others sometimes get a little lost in the shuffle. And so I’m pleased to be able to spend a little bit more time with this one. Let’s see what I make of it now. Continue reading →

Glenlossie 29, 1978 (Gordon & MacPhail)

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Glenlossie is the very definition of a workhorse distillery producing malt for Diageo’s blends; and in their case I don’t believe there even is a mainline blend they are closely associated with. There is no official release of their whisky as single malt, save for the occasional Flora & Fauna bottle (I am still fuzzy on the currency of that series). I have had very little Glenlossie in my time and have reviewed even less; only two others, in fact (this 10 yo and this 22 yo). Which means that this is without a doubt the oldest Glenlossie I’ve ever had (though in a few weeks it may not hold this title anymore). I said rude things about Auchentoshan last week—noting that it was one of the distilleries that seemed to give the lie to my belief that every distillery is capable of producing excellent casks—and it must be said that the few Glenlossies I’ve had have not inspired much confidence in that direction either. Will this much older iteration, distilled in the 1970s, confirm my optimism? I hope so. Continue reading →

Glenlossie 10, 1993 (Whisky-Galore)

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Ah, Whisky Galore—the name takes me back. This was Duncan Taylor’s entry-level line of malts for the enthusiast back in the day. The whiskies were bottled at 46% and were generally of a pretty good quality. Some of the bottles in this line were my earliest forays into the world of independently bottled whisky and gave me the confidence to spend more money on older whiskies—some of those in Duncan Taylor’s own older lines. At some point in the the last decade and a half the Whisky Galore line was replaced by the NC2 line and all the competitively-priced older Duncan Taylor releases disappeared. The NC2 series is also now gone. The entry-level Duncan Taylor line we see in the US now is Battlehill—ubiquitous on the shelves of the Total Wine chain.

Anyway here’s a throwback review of a Whisky Galore release from an unheralded distillery. Glenlossie is another Speyside disitllery, part of Diageo’s portfolio, producing for their blends. Every distillery in Scotland is capable of producing excellent casks, however, and it’s the independents that let us see this. Let’s see if that’s the case here.  Continue reading →

Glenlossie 22, 1992 (van Wees)

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Glenlossie 22, 1992, van Wees
This is the first Glenlossie I have reviewed on the blog and it may well be the first Glenlossie I’ve ever had. I know very little about the distillery except that it is in the Speyside, is owned by Diageo and produces malt for their blends. As per Whiskybase there have been no official releases other than one each in the Flora & Fauna, Manager’s Dram and Manager’s Choice series and the most recent of those was released in 2009. What this means, of course, is that next year Diageo will put a 37 yo Glenlossie in their annual special release and ask £2000 for it.

There does seem to have been a slight uptick in independent releases in recent years but I’m not sure that I’ve heard or read anyone waxing rhapsodic about Glenlossie. As you will see below, I won’t be waxing rhapsodic about this bottle either but it was a pleasant, easy drinker.  Continue reading →