Glasgow 1770 Small Batch Duo
Madeira and Islay Cask Finishes | Various ABV
Doing the Thing They Do Best: Surprising Us
I’ve been thinking recently about all the distilleries that are out there, busting their proverbials in the name of our enjoyment.
Day after day the people we never get to see cycle through the production of their whisky and then, once it’s all casked up and thus matured, release it into the wild, excited that the fruits of their labours can finally be enjoyed by the masses.
Then losers like me tear it a new one because it doesn’t suit my preferences, or worse than any criticism, they find radio silence. Hello, is anyone out there? It’s a big bit unfair, isn’t it?
But that’s the reality of manufacturing stuff; whether it’s car tyres or whisky, the folk working hard making the things for other folk to enjoy, do so with the hope, an expectation perhaps, that their products will sell. By selling the products, they can continue to make products, and so it goes. Until one day the world moves on, and no-one is buying your products anymore; you have to either make different products, or accept that it’s time to retire to the Bahamas.
Whisky is an emotional product. There’s no real need in life for whisky, certainly not like we need iPads or, you know, food etc. Whisky is a thing we buy because we want to experience something new emotionally, through our gaping faceholes and wide eyed fervour. Whisky fulfils an aspect of our life that is superfluous in nature, unnecessary for survival. You can’t wrap whisky around you to keep you warm and dry, or wear the bottles as shoes. It’s a singular product - we buy and drink it for fun.
I was doom scrolling the other day and stumbled upon an interview with the nerve tickler Jimmy Carr himself. In a rare bout of seriousness he discusses objectively privileged lives - we have hot showers and, at the push of a button can be entertained, eat what we want, drink what we want and grow old in relative comfort. We are living like kings. Only 100 years ago did we have none of the luxuries we have now. Yet it’s all basically taken as gospel, as a baseline to which other things are built upon - the stuff we decide to chase, the niche products that dictate our happiness, the material stuff, the career stuff, the status stuff. He vocalised something that really resonated with me: happiness is your quality of life, minus envy.
I’m pretty sure for the whisky brand sphere, that statement is too much of a reduction - quality of product minus envy doesn’t compute. It might be more accurate to say the quality of product minus the budget to market it to everyone, works better. But whisky is a jovial place. In the spheres within which I operate professionally, envy drives absolutely everything. It’s a purely status-above-spec driven culture of measuring willies, measuring your own self-worth against those who are lucky enough to live in the top 0.01% of society, enjoying an ultra-luxury lifestyle, those who can afford to waft about in/on/around/with the pinnacle of superfluous objects. Don’t they say comparison is the thief of joy?
So many parents out there are reeling over the advent of smartphones, not because aspiration is bad, but because the things kids are seeing on their Instahoot are not just out of reach, but are more often than not impossible to comprehend. You need to be born into the ultra-wealth, or have business acumen enough to pretend that it’s your day-to-day lifestyle. Kids don’t have the cynicism I’m naturally gifted with, and are not being inspired, but are getting depressed - they know they’ll never have a superyacht and so give up before they’ve even started. Quality of life minus envy, for kids, equals disillusionment.
Whisky, thank the lord of uisge beatha, is a monumental giver of joy, through the community that huddles around the amber prisms and shout about how great life is. There are brands out there that are status driven, that do attempt to reach the heightened echelon of Macallan. I can count on maybe both hands the distilleries placing status before product, the ones positioning themselves to be the bottle to be seen with on your glowing collection shelves, rather than the one discussed in dark pub corners. As we stand witness to the golden age of young whisky appearing like a blazing sun over the horizon, it’s perhaps one of the main reasons why I gravitate towards new distilleries and young whisky: they’re humble and aspire to be drunk.
Most, mind you, approach their craft the same - flavour and quality is the main driver of their work, coupled with price and some shelf presence through cool glassware. Very few come out with status as their objective: Falkirk Distillery seem to fill that role enough for all. That’s not to say that, when launching their inaugural whisky, these young guns might fly too close to that rising sun, and one that springs to mind quite quickly is Glasgow; some wax was starting to melt on those feathery wings.
Wax loss tolerance dictates how quickly those flying high start to level off at a lower altitude. Some might wait for the bare bones to whistle on the way down, whilst others repel at the very idea of their wax softening. Thankfully for everyone involved in whisky excitement, Glasgow Distillery have come down to cruising altitude, a place that welcomes one and all. 2024 has seen Glasgow Distillery, for me and many inside our circles, fly into our direct view, first with the bottle size increasing for the same dollar, and then that dollar price falling in their core range. Two mega-moves that immediately repositioned their product: we are here for the drinkers.
The one-two punch was followed up rickety-tick with a bobby-dazzler, in their Small Batch Series releases. More often than not humble hidden single casks, these ridiculously good whiskies are offered to the masses at £59, a price usually reserved for core range bottlings. In an amber world full of things getting more expensive and less good, owing to corner cutting and outturn bloating, chill-filtering and watery reduction, it’s bloody marvellous to see Glasgow going the other way. Less expensive, more good, less corner cutting. It seems simple, but Glasgow are penning the blueprint for how to turn fortunes around.
Guess what? We’re now talking about Glasgow Distillery with passion. We’re going into pubs and seeking out their wares. We’re posting reviews about them, chasing their bottles and supporting the folk that walk these scorched paths promoting their whisky and expanding their markets, because we’re finding value in each and every sip. That’s how it works, no? We see our comrades starting to fire on all cylinders and it’s human nature to lift them up onto our shoulders and shout their names, because human endeavour is worth celebrating, especially one that brings us so much joy in a world filled with un-joy.
Each time a new Small Batch release is announced my ears prick up, because I know from the 3 or 4 bottles I’ve tried, it’ll likely be excellent value and an excellent whisky. Glasgow’s base whisky is great, so anything that builds upon that will be, at the very least, interesting. The Manzanilla Small Batch lit a fire underneath Glasgow Distillery for me and each subsequent release has stoked it. Today I’m appraising two of their bottles from the latest Small Batch Series, both offering finished single cask experiences for £59. It still makes me smile thinking about how Glasgow are putting out single casks for under £60, but anyway, let’s get into it, with a few words following from oor Commander-in-Chief, and oor Drummond.
Review 1/5 - Dougie
Glasgow 1770, Madeira Cask Finish, Small Batch Series, October 2024 - Cask 18/1191, 58% ABV
£59 Available from Glasgow Distillery and specialist retailers
As soon as I opened the Madeira bottle and sniffed, I thought of the sensational Manzanilla release in April 2024. Big, smokey red bamstick. Glasgow really does the smoky red thing beautifully. Reading the label of this bottle I see that this single cask (18/1191) was matured for the most part in an American white oak cask, then finished in a Madeira cask for 1 year and 11 months.
It’s robust, it’s red, it’s smoky and it’s delicious. It’s difficult to shake the feeling that Glasgow are a peated sherry powerhouse, and I reckon that the Madeira is as good as the Manzanilla from memory. It’s danger whisky too, because even at the bottled ABV it’s disappearing down the throatpipe like fruit juice. To try and stop myself from ending up prematurely horizontal, I head out to the garage to dig out the Manzanilla and Cognac bottles from April to see if my memory works. It’s freezing out there, so pour two drams and leave them to warm up.
Nose
Nice subtle match striker. Big brown sauce on bacon roll. Sweet iced cinnamon bun. I’m hungry now. Raisins on that bun. Saucy chili jam. Cherry cola. Red stop light bright. Salty smoke. PVA glue. More matches. Fresh soil.
Water: Dusty old carpet inside a pine lined mining house memory jog. More smoke appears. Everything is rounded off - prefer full speed, obvs.
Palate
Industrial oil. Spiced berry pot. Muscovado sugar laced with menthol. Dark marmalade, thick cut. Leather. Peppery wood spice. All the smorgasbord of toffees and coffees and ginger and a bit of the old orange sponge.
Score: 7/10 DC
Review 2/5 - Dougie
Glasgow 1770, Islay Cask Finish, Small Batch Series - Cask 18/1114, 57.3% ABV
£59 Available from Glasgow Distillery and specialist retailers
The Islay Cask blew my little head off. No point in dancing around it. Clean off. Not because it’s a peat monster, or a smoke bomb, or a firestorm, but because it’s so chuffing thick. Oily. Chewy. Bright, fresh, clean, syrupy. The Islay influence is very delicate and very complimentary, rather than blootering it all to feck. Knowing how easily peat can wreck a whisky with a glance, to deploy peated Glasgow spirit inside an ex-Islay cask and have it come out like this, all juicy and stuff? What magic are Glasgow doing down there, in their wee industrial shed? Whatever it is, keep doing it, for goodness sake.
Another single cask (18/1114) that’s been matured in a single virgin American white oak cask, and then finished for 2 years and 3 months in an ex-Islay cask, this is remarkably clean yet dense whisky. How are they doing it? I’m finding fresh notes of washing in a hebridean salty breeze, cinnamon cola, jelly babies, concrete and fresh earth, and even a lactic note in there - sour milk or maybe cooked veg/cabbage. Really great.
Nose
Fresh, clean, breezy washing. Peat smoke from a chimney. Hebridean. Mahoosive cinnamon cola cubes. Cedarwood, seaside soap shop. Sandalwood. Construction site plastic tub and concrete. Jelly beans, the white ones. Mint. Fleeting lactic note. Matches.
Water: Juicier!
Palate
Big sweeties with smoke. Oily as feck. Reminds me of triple distilled added to the cognac release. Oily. Earthy yet so clean. Oily. Sugary sweet, not overwhelming. Smoke is there but so well integrated. Not medicinal. Not earthy. Just…there. Orchards are appearing. Smoke is remaining. Oily.
Water: More juice, salty glorious tropical/orchard. White fruits. Minty note expands. Fresh note expands slightly. Tobacco appears. All the sweet toffees etc. Fantastic stuff.
The Dregs
Turning to the two from April, the Manzanilla remains absolutely supersoaker 3000. All bells, all whistles, all things. The Madeira in comparison is not quite as sweet and thick, but perhaps more refined as a result. I was draining the Manzanilla bottle and had to stick it in the garage to stop myself, and I see why: it’s even more a danger whisky than the Madeira. That said, in comparison the Maderia doesn’t fall short. It’s not exposed as a lesser whisky, just a different, connected experience. It’s a solid whisky and, if you didn’t manage to get the Manzanilla, a very good alternative.
The Cognac from April is even cleaner than the Islay Cask, which makes sense as it’s their triple distillate wrapped in a Cognac blanket. The Islay Cask is as thick and chewy as that, but with the excellent integration of some stage-widening smoke. It does increase in presence the longer the whisky sits in the glass, but never overbears or shouts. It’s really good whisky. Both are. Deary me.
All in all what I’m seeing here is Glasgow making some bloody good liquid and not asking the world for it. They’re not asking much at all actually, which makes me nervous - if it’s too good to be true, it usually is. What am I missing? Is this a flash in the pan, just a good year for Glasgow? Or is this just the way things are going to be now, as more distilleries release whisky that blows our socks off? Kingsbarns with their 2024 Distillery Reserve, Lindores with their Ruby Port Distillery Cask, and Glasgow with pretty much every Small Batch Series released this year.
The golden age of whisky, I tell you. Comparison might be the thief of joy, but if Glasgow can land like a Butterbean haymaker, having flopped out the corner like an upstream salmon, then it might not be a bad idea for other young distilleries to take a leaf out Glasgow’s book. Not so much comparison, but inspiration. Beautiful to witness. I’m being more cautious now with my scoring, and knowing that Glasgow will likely release stuff that befuddles me, this is a future proofing pair of really good 7/10’s.
A big thanks to Glasgow for sending these two bottles via diverted Dramface rules - I shared a big slug with a few of the other writers, as is fair. Drummond (Madeira) and Wally (Islay Cask) bought their own bottles.
Score: 7/10 DC
Review 3/5 - Drummond
Glasgow 1770, Madeira Cask Finish, Small Batch Series, October 2024 - Cask 18/1191, 58% ABV
£59 Available from Glasgow Distillery and specialist retailers
XEarlier this year I wrote about how much I’ve enjoyed what Glasgow Distillery is doing. I’ve tried several expressions from them now and as much as I enjoy their Original and Triple-Distilled, it was their peated bottlings that really grabbed me by the collar and compelled me to pay attention.
And pay attention I have. I’ve now polished off two of those three bottles that I reviewed, and now that we’re well into autumn here in bonnie Scotland, with the leaves currently inflamed in browns, auburns, golds, deep reds, and a thousand other colours, this Yankee expat is again coming back to the wonderful Peated Cask Strength to see in the colder weather and darker evenings.
As we’ve discussed before, Glasgow Distillery is – currently – doing everything right. In a whisky scene that often sees more cynicism by the day, Glasgow is a refreshing amber-coloured light on a crowded warehouse floor. Yesterday Wally lamented that the latest Talisker Diageo Special Release was bang average for a hefty price. And that its USP was some stone-bashing-in-a-barrel nonsense to give the cask a supposedly unique character. Give us a break.
Compare this with Glasgow Distillery: integrity bottlings all the way, no-nonsense marketing, terrific transparency, and some of the most reasonable prices in whisky today. Indeed, Glasgow’s entire range – from the core range 46% bottlings to the “Small Batch” Series that we’re looking at today – are some of the very best value buys around today – full stop.
Yes, all of the spirit is younger than 10 years, but as we’ve seen the last few years, age is no longer equal to quality. I bought today’s Madeira Cask Finish bottle for £59 direct from the distillery. It’s young at six years old, but as we’ll see, this youth brings vibrancy and flavour, rather than something spirity with rough edges.
Let’s also remember that earlier this year Glasgow pulled off one of the most unexpected, honest and therefore frankly stunning moves by any producer in years: it lowered its prices on its core range bottling. That’s right, l-o-w-e-r-e-d. Can you imagine any other producer doing such a thing? None, to my knowledge, has. Look at the aforementioned Diageo Special Releases, and watch them sit on the shelves. Watch the indie bottlers that are increasingly taking a page from the Diageo price rise playbook and charging £100 or more for 10-12 year old whisky. You know the ones, because I know you see them too.
All of this has turned me into a Glasgow fan. And while we’ve liked some expressions more than others, we haven’t disliked any, have generally liked most, and have genuinely loved others.
At a recent festival the Glasgow rep mentioned some new expressions arriving for autumn, and so for the last few weeks I was browsing and waiting for something to pop up. Sure enough, I got the email notification from the distillery, saw that one was a peated cask strength single-cask Madeira finish, and pulled the trigger. My other dram today is generously provided by oor Dougie from his bottle of the Islay Cask Finish.
Nose
Filthy peaty dirtiness. Smoke-injected red berry syrup. Charred wooden bench. Fruity ginger. Peat, but not overwhelming. Madeira, but dancing alongside the other rather than dominating the other aromas.
Palate
Oily, red, syrupy goodness. Powerful at 58% but not spirity and very drinkable. Hints of orange peel and chocolate as the label tasting notes suggest, but also liquified crystallised ginger, smoky stewed fruits, syrup-drizzled smouldering ash, and charred red berries.
The Dregs
Another banger: full of flavour, and a finish that actually feels like a proper finish. This hasn’t been a flash finish that feels like a superficial layer of secondary cask somehow sitting on top of the base maturation without integration, marriage, and settling. This finish has those very qualities: it feels integrated with the first virgin oak maturation in a way that delivers some terrific and interesting balance.
It doesn’t quite have the complexity as it will probably have in a few more years, but for the price and the full-flavoured experience I’m getting, I’m very happy with my purchase. And full-on flavoured it is. I’m thinking of getting a back-up while there’s still some around…
Score: 7/10 DD
Review 4/5 - Drummond
Glasgow 1770, Islay Cask Finish, Small Batch Series - Cask 18/1114, 57.3% ABV
£59 Available from Glasgow Distillery and specialist retailers
Thanks to Dougie for the generous sample.
Nose
Sea salt; almost maritime. Peaty smoke but surprisingly subtle. Old-timey boiled sweets and honey-drizzled seaweed on a wooden bench. Barley dust.
Palate
Sea salt but also sweet, with a warm weather harbour quality. Peaty but less smoky and more almost vegetal and earthy. Fruits but something more tropical as the bottles tasting notes suggest. Nice mouth-coating texture, but a bit drier than the Madeira cask; pleasantly so. Boiled sweets again, but with more of a velvety quality than on the nose.
The Dregs
I haven’t had many ex-Islay cask matured or finished whiskies, but the ones I’ve had have been…okay, but haven’t blown me away. This Islay Cask Finish is changing my mind. You might think that a peated spirit in an ex-peated cask might be overkill, but I can report that it’s certainly not. This is one of the more interesting peated malts I’ve had in a while. A peated cask and peated spirit coming together to produce a whisky with surprisingly subtle peated qualities. Often peat aromas are jumping out of the glass and pulverising your palate – not the case here. The peat influences here feel layered, integrated, and interesting. A very different beast from the peated Madeira finish, but distinct in its own right, and most importantly, full-flavoured, fun, and, again, interesting.
As I sip, savour, and enjoy these two bangers this autumn, I can’t wait to see what Glasgow has up their sleeves next.
Score: 7/10 DD
Review 5/5 - Wally
Glasgow 1770, Islay Cask Finish, Small Batch Series - Cask 18/1114, 57.3% ABV
£59 Available from Glasgow Distillery and specialist retailers
Dougie got his bottles for free. But you need to know that Drummond and I went out and bought ours; I grabbed the Islay Cask Finish and he grabbed the Madeira, not because we weren’t offered, but because we’re already fans. We diverted the freebies elsewhere.
There’s also a Marsala release out there too.
Look, I know that the Dramface scores are a hot topic right now and we need to take them seriously, and such and such, but they’re also a genuine way for us to express our excitement. Please always be sure to read the words.
If I look at our wee scoring guide, there’s only one score for this. I bloody love it. It’s something special.
Initially spouting nervousness over the virgin oak, it only took a sip to shut me up.
Nose
Butterscotch and fudge, earthy smoke and salt, mint and lavender. Fat, rich meatiness too, and lots of candied orange peel.
Palate
Delight!
Winter warmth. The arrival is a full on toffee sauce, fudge and dates, some salted caramel too, then sticky, sweet orange. A great, hefty body and shape to things. Rich and mouth-coating, it hangs around for an age. Waves of fireside smoke with cinnamon and ginger spices, leaving a cool, lingering minty fresh end to things.
Water helps elevate some complexity, in that some of the more delicate notes can be accessed, like a flicker of a green note and a flash of slight, salty acidity. Maybe some softer, lighter fruits too. But as per usual I pour another in full-fat guise and hop on the sofa to purr myself content. Delicious.
The Dregs
The TL;DR above is tongue in cheek, it’s just another way to express that this is a good whisky. There might have been a brilliant few releases to come out of Kinclaith distillery back in the day - which was one of those malt-distillery-inside-a-grain-distillery deals, built within Strathclyde Distillery just south of the River Clyde - and some of it is still available. But I’ve not tried it and chances are not many of you have either, so, yeah.
Glasgow whisky is therefore, today, either something from Glasgow Distillery or malt from the rapidly improving Clydeside. And, despite how much I loved Glasgow’s Manzanilla small batch (also a peated cask - though they didn’t mention it), this is the most excited I’ve been about any of it.
But you know what actually makes this a true 8/10 for me? There’s nothing more fun than being able to genuinely enthuse about a genuinely good, tasty and remarkable bottle of whisky - it’s a privilege. Yet, even more than that, this is one of those bottles than surely no one would pick up and say anything other than: wow.
And more still, when it’s also a mere £59, it’s a no brainer. Get it bought. Get it open. Get it ‘roon ye.
Glasgow whisky is back baby. And this is the best there’s been yet.
Score: 8/10 WMc
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DC