This bottling is a limited edition single malt whisky from The Glasgow Distillery Co. The release is designed to celebrate the unique relationship that exists between a cooperage and a distillery. The whisky is a collaboration between the Glasgow-based distillery and the Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky. The cooperage is one of the largest independently-owned cooperages in America. It was founded by Ed McLaughlin in 1991 when he moved his coopering business from Glasgow to the famous whiskey state of Kentucky.
The cooperage, now owned by Ed's son Paul, has created a cask made from a combination of two different cask types - half of the staves are heavily charred virgin American oak and half are from a lesser charred cask that has previously held Glasgow 1770 single malt. This unique cask was then filled with Glasgow 1770 spirit that had previously been maturing in ex-Port barrels.
The Glasgow Distillery Co. began production in February 2015 and in doing so became the first distillery to produce single malt whisky in Glasgow in the modern era. The brand is named after the Dundashill distillery, which was Glasgow's first ever whisky distillery and was founded in 1770. The Glasgow Distillery Co. was founded by Mike Hayward, Liam Hughes and Ian McDougall, and is located in Hillington to the west of the city. The distillery has an annual capacity of 270,000 litres and initial reaction to the single malts has already led to an expansion being planned.
The company has three expressions in their single malt core range - the 1770 Original, 1770 Peated and 1770 Triple Distilled. They also own Makar gin, which is produced at the distillery in a dedicated gin still, and the rare aged single malt label Prometheus.
The Glasgow 1770 'The Coopers' Cask Release' is bottled at the natural cask strength of 53.3% ABV and is both non chill-filtered and of natural colour. There were just 403 bottles available and these have now sold out. Each bottle cost £59.
Our tasting notes
The colour is golden yellow with a faint red tint and the nose leaps out of the glass. Juicy fruit aromas come first - think of sultana, plums and peach - and these are followed by further aromas of brown sugar, toffee and vanilla fudge. Later hints of orange marmalade, cinnamon bark, white chocolate and raspberry jam also come through.
On the palate this whisky is immediately hot and peppery. As this settles it is the woody notes that come first - imagine vanilla, fresh oak shavings and cinnamon. These calm a little to then let the sweeter and fruitier characteristics from the nose to develop. The sweetness comes in the form of heather honey and toffee notes, which evolve in to fudge and white chocolate with a hint of marshmallow and cream soda.
The fruitiness begins with fresh fruit but then becomes more confected or dried. Think of fresh and almost over ripe peach, apricot, plum and a hint of pineapple to kick off. Then come notes of that marmalade and raspeberry (or is it strawberry now?) jam from the nose and a handful of raisins, currants and juicy sultanas. A dash of water takes away that initially negative heat and makes the whisky softer and creamier.
The finish is of decent length especially while the sweetness and fruitiness lasts. As they begin to fade the woody and spicy notes come through heavily again, especially the peppery note and oak shaving characteristics. A late and previously undetected note of gingerbread, plus a hint of cinnamon round things off nicely.
What's the verdict?
The Coopers' Cask Release has plenty of delicious aromas and flavours present. The initial palate and later part of the finish are a little hot and drying, but other than that the whisky is lovely. It, along with the core range products that we have sampled to date, show a real promise for future releases from The Glasgow Distillery Co.
The whisky is also a fitting tribute to Kevin McLaughlin, Ed's son and Paul's brother, from Kelvin Cooperage who sadly died during the project. It will also be interesting to see what other collaborations that the distillery enter in to or are in the pipeline. Hopefully there will be a few more bottles available should such a thing happen, so more people can enjoy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment