Glenglassaugh

The start of Glenglassaugh’s new limited range “The Chosen Few” is launched!

Regular readers of the blog know that I rarely post press releases.  Sadly, for me, there are too many of them and too little time.  Maybe someday I’ll figure out a way to release more industry news but, until then, I will post when I can and will try to focus on the ones I find would be most striking to my audience (or to me).

Why am I posting this one about Glenglassaugh’s “The Chosen Few” range?  Well:

A) I love Glenglassaugh, that’s no secret.

B) I had the privilege and honor of interviewing Glenglassaugh’s Managing Director, Stuart Nickerson (a great guy, by the way).

The first bottle in "The Chosen Few" series - Ronnie chose a damn fine cask of whisky - 35yo Sherry cask. That's me and Ronnie (left and right, respectively) from the most recent JSMWS tour of Scotland.

C) When looking to name this series of single cask bottlings, Ronnie Routledge posted a contest on the Friends of Glenglassaugh Facebook page looking for a name for the series and yours truly (that’s me, Joshua Hatton, by the way) picked the winning name:  The Chosen Few.

So, as you can see, I have a personal attachment to this story.

Now, without further ado or adon’t, Glenglassaugh’s “The Chosen Few” (plus details on the Glenglassaugh visitor center refurbishment):

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Glenglassaugh Distillery, Portsoy.  25 August 2011.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

•    Glenglassaugh distillery’s “Chosen Few” launches
•    Visitor centre refurbishment under way

Glenglassaugh distillery at Portsoy on the picturesque Moray firth coast proudly announce the release of the first bottling from their “Chosen Few” series of single cask expressions. The Chosen Few series, explains Ronnie Routledge, Customer Account Manager for Glenglassaugh, allowed our team, based here at the distillery, the opportunity to sample various casks from our small portfolio to discover his or her favourite cask of Glenglassaugh Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky and get the once-in-a-lifetime experience of having it bottled with their own name on the label.

The team of ten have each given an indication of which whisky they would like to bottle and we will release these over the next 2 – 3 years. Some of them are carefully watching casks of spirit which we distilled and laid down after re-opening the distillery in November 2008 and anxiously wait for them to mature into whisky, while others prefer the greatly aged Glenglassaugh whiskies. “I was very privileged to be asked to choose the first release which is one of the finest single malts I have ever tasted and I’ve tried an awful lot”, says Routledge who is well known in the whisky industry, is a “Keeper of the Quaich” and ex whisky judge. “This particular expression delivers everything I look for in well-balanced single malts: complexity, depth, tropical fruit in abundance, chocolate and good sherry character, balanced perfectly with oak spice”.

Stuart and Ronnie - proudly showing off the first bottle in "The Chosen Few" series

This very limited expression of only 654 bottles is from a 1976 vintage sherry butt, bottled at 35 years old at a natural strength of 49.6% abv and is available through all good whisky stockists with a RRP of £299.99. “It was quite an honour and privilege to be presented with bottle number # 2 from the release, it almost felt like a lifetime achievement award” said Routledge.

The team at Glenglassaugh are also busy renovating their new dedicated visitor centre which they are determined to open before the end of 2011 to coincide with the release of their very first single malt, distilled since the new owners took over in 2008 after a closed spell of 22 years. “Distillery tours at the moment are by appointment only so it will be great to have proper facilities in place for the many visitors who make a pilgrimage to Glenglassaugh and expand on what we are currently offering”, explains Stuart Nickerson, MD for Glenglassaugh distillery. “The Banffshire region as a whole will benefit from Glenglassaugh’s visitor centre and attract thousands of tourists into the area each year”.

Glenglassaugh has a range of whisky available from 26 years of age to a 45 year old and more information on these and how to purchase them as well as your very own 50 litre Octave cask can be found on the distillery website www.glenglassaugh.com.

The company also has a range of Spirit Drinks and more information on these can be found on www.thespiritdrink.com.

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Update by the JSMWS:  You can find the first bottle of The Chosen Few HERE and HERE (to be released in September sometime).