Glenrothes – An Aristocratic Distillery

A Glenrothes single malt is not something you just share with anyone. It’s the kind of distillery that boasts that its secret is only known to a select few. What makes its single malts so exclusive?

It’s about maturity and flavour but in a very unique way.

Glenrothes Distillery insists that maturity matters more than an age statement. What happens to the whisky in the cask is far more important than the number of years spent in it. Glenrothes’s philosophy claims that ‘an eighteen-year-old can still be immature’.

For example, their Master Blender makes a careful study of cask wood to ensure that it’s still active otherwise the whisky doesn’t become activated by the transfer of flavours between wood and whisky. But they don’t just obsess about maturity – they’re all about flavour.

Glenrothes has gained a reputation amongst Master Blenders for its complexity and flavour. Speyside is the home of elegance in Scotch, and Glenrothes is the crème de la crème of Speyside – literally. When Master Blenders wish to make their blends creamier, fruitier and more elegant, they add Glenrothes, and this is for specific reasons:

Glenrothes carries out an unusually slow distillation in magnificent copper pot stills which deliver their characteristic clean, sweet, fruity and elegant spirit.

Further flavours come from their extensive knowledge of oak cask maturation. This process doesn’t start in the cask warehouse.

Their insistence on creating a stunning flavour means they’re constantly obsessing, balancing and tinkering with their Oloroso casks in their in-house cooperage.

The flavours at the heart of Glenrothes are ripe fruits, juicy citrus, creamy vanilla and complex spices. What you get are wonderful balance, great harmony and every imaginable flavour.

We couldn’t end things without saying something about their distinctive packaging.

Glenrothes whisky comes in some of the most unique packaging in the whisky industry. Their unusual bulbous bottles are based on the distillery’s classic sample bottle, and their labels are like handwritten intimate notes between the Master Blender and you.

There is one final thing you need to know about Glenrothes – its exclusivity and rarity.

Only a small amount of the whisky distilled in Glenrothes is ever bottled as the Glenrothes. Most of their whisky is bought up to be used in blends.

But every year, their finest casks – some 2% – are handpicked and signed off by the Malt Master to be bottled as the Glenrothes, much of it only available on allocation.

Perhaps you wish to take a look at some of the exclusive and rare Glenrothes we have in our collection.

As they say in Glenrothes: ‘We don’t share the secrets of Glenrothes with just anyone, only like-minded people. It’s not selfishness – more like selective generosity.’

Enjoy!