The Glen Ord distillery was founded in 1838 by Thomas Mackenzie in
the 'Black Isle' area north of Inverness. The distillery takes its name
from 'The Ord', a plain 15 miles north of Inverness. Many castles of the
clan Mackenzie can be found in the area, including Kintail, Brahan and
Eilean Donan. The clan has Celtic origins (as opposed to Norman) and
possibly came to Scotland from Ireland somewhere in the 12th century.

Immediately after construction Thomas Mackenzie licensed the distillery
to the Ord Distillery Co., owned by D. McLennan and Robert Johnstone.
Soon Robert became the sole owner - but he went bankrupt in 1847.
Glen Ord distillery was put up for sale, but it wasn't until 1855 that it
was purchased by Alexander McLennan and Thomas McGregor.

Alexander McLennan passed away in 1870, after which his widow took over the
distillery. In 1877 the ownership of Glen Ord returned to the Mackenzie clan when
Alexander McLellan's widow remarried. Her new husband Alexander McKenzie took
out a 19 year lease of Glen Ord and constructed a new still house. Unfortunately, it
was destroyed in a fire shortly afterwards. Alexander McKenzie died in 1896, just
when the lease of the distillery ended. Glen Ord was sold to James Watson & Co.
(a blending company from Dundee) for £15,800.

In 1923 James Watson's son died without heirs, after which Glen Ord distillery was purchased by John Dewar & Sons who became part of Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1925. Five years later, in 1930, Glen Ord was transferred to Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd. (SMD). This marked the beginning of a few relatively quiet decades.

That's much more than the Glen Ord distillery needs; the maltings produce the
malted barley for a few other of Diageo's distilleries as well. While the maltings
operation was expanded, the actual distillation was as well. In 1966 the distillery
was renovated, while the number of stills was expanded from two to six.

1) It's virtually impossible to find independent bottlings from Glen Ord. In 2009 the MMMonitor showed circa half a dozen bottlings from Cadenhead's (mostly from the 1980's & 1990's) and a similar number from Douglas Laing.

2) In 1882 Alexander Mackenzie registred the name 'Glenoran' for the whisky distilled at Glen Ord distillery.
In the early 1980's Glen Ord was still known as 'Glen Oran', during the late 1980's as 'Glen Ordie'.

3) Given the importance of the Mackenzie clan in the history of Glen Ord, it might be fun to have a few drams while listening to the song 'The McKenzie Brothers' from the American band Rednex.
The more glasses of Glen Ord you drink, the funnier it gets...

4) Before the introduction of the 'Singleton of Glen Ord', circa 20% of all of the whisky that was produced at Glen Ord distillery was sold as a single malt. The rest was used in blends like Johnnie Walker and Dewar's.

5) More trivia about Glen Ord distillery will be added later.
 

Due to some strange coincidence, I've consumed a lot of Glen Ord over the years, but I've made precious little tasting notes while I was at it.  Here's are my notes on a fairly random selection of Glen Ord expressions...

Singleton of Glen Ord 12yo (40%, OB, for duty free 1L, Bottled +/- 2009)
Nose: Malty. Shoe polish. Spices. Sweetish. Some polished oak. Starts off fairly open but closes up quickly.
Not really my kind of profile, but at least it's not dull... It's quite different from previous batches though.
Taste: Smooth start; sweet for a second and then growing more herbal. Dry, flat finish that turns quite hot.
No sweetness. Dampo menthol salve? Hot and cool menthol and camphor sensations at the end of the finish.
Score: 74 points - it seems notably less sweet on the palate to me than earlier batches of this 'Singleton'... 

Singleton of Glen Ord 12yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2008)
Nose: Ooooh. Spices, faint organics and some shoe polish. Fairly subtle, though.
My kind of whisky - but the nose falls apart after just a few minutes. Something like diesel in the background.
Taste: Fits the nose quite well; although it feels thinner than I imagined. Solid tannins in the finish.
Is that a very soft touch of peat in the background? Some sweet liquorice as well after a few minutes.
Score: 79 points - this seems like a worthy successor to the regular Glen Ord 12yo in the square bottle.

Glen Ord 18yo 1989/2007 (50%, Douglas Laing OMC, Refill butt, Ref 3336, Sherry finish, 808 Bts.)
Nose: Yoghurt. Nectarines. Banana's. This one really is a fruit bomb. Some dust as well. Enjoyable!
Taste: Strong fruits on the palate as well. Long finish with just the right amount of tannins - but fairly harsh.
Score: 84 points - this one earned an extra point when I found a hint of smoke on the palate.

Glen Ord 40yo (40.1%, Royal Mile Whiskies, 300 bottles, Bottled +/- 2005)
Nose: This is unique. Light and fruity with hints of glue and grain. Reminds me of the 'Greenore' Irish.
It does improve considerably after some breathing - a solid but slightly MOTR malt whisky.
Taste: Not an overall success, I'm afraid. Gritty in the start, undecided in the centre, sweet in the finish.
Malty & chewy on the palate. Liquorice. That being said, there's a disturbing hint of pine there as well.
Score: 84 points - Not my cup of tea initially, but it grew on me over time.

Glen Ord 25yo 1978/2004 (58.3%, OB)
Nose: Sweet with hints of antiquity in the background. Very subtle farmy and metallic aroma's at the back.
Very enjoyable, but not terribly complex. Some more fruits emerged after I added a few drops of water.
Taste: Surprisingly harsh; the nose suggests a 'smoother' mouth feel. Oh wait - it's almost 60% ABV...
Sweetness emerges over time, along with touches of peat & smoke. Hint of liquorice in the chewy tannins.
With a splash of water the mouth feel became just a tad grittier - and the peat & smoke came forward.
Score: 86 points - experiences with the 23yo UDRM bottling from 1998 suggest it improves with breathing.

Glen Ord 23yo 1974/1998 (60.8%, UD Rare Malts)
Nose:  The nose started out very alcoholic with lots of paint thinner. Fortunately, it settles down quickly.
The alcoholic feints develop into complex spices and organics, after which I got some nice sweet liquorice notes.
Reminds me of liquorice all sorts. It softens up further with some water, becoming creamier.
Taste: The taste was quite sweet with a lovely mouth feel. Toffee with a hint of smoke. This is a keeper...
It's definitely one of those malts that improve after oxidation. Pretty great stuff - but there are better UDRM's.
Score: 85 points - but I should point out that the first few drams from the bottle scored much lower.
So, make sure to let this one breathe for as long as possible.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Glen Ord whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions.
 
On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery.
Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 
 

In 1985 Glen Ord was acquired by United Malt & Grain Distillers
(United Distillers), which officially became part of the large Diageo
corporation a little over a decade later. They continued to produce
the dependable Glen Ord single malt in the round bottle (shown at
the left) for a few more years before they introduced its successor
in the square bottle (depicted at the right) a few years later. Both
bottlings offered pretty good value; affordable single malt whiskies
scoring around 80 points on my personal enjoyment scale.

In 1961 the floor maltings were replaced by a
Saladin box, which was supplemented with
drum maltings in 1968. Both maltings were
used together for more than a decade, but in
1983 they stopped using the Saladin box.
These days the drum maltings at Glen Ord
produce some 36,000 tonnes per year.

In recent years that comfortable situation has changed considerably.
While the name 'Singleton' had been reserved for the product of the Auchroisk whisky distillery (also owned by Diageo) during the 1980's and 1990's, around the year 2007 three brand new 'Singleton' single malt whiskies were introduced in different parts of the world. Oddly enough, these singletons were produced at three different malt whisky distilleries; Glendullan, Dufftown and Glen Ord. The malts from these distilleries are marketed under the same name in three different parts of the world - which seems like a departure from the 'Classic Malts' ideology.
 
This means that whisky lovers on different continents can enjoy three different 'Singleton' malts;
 
USA - Glendullan 12yo - I haven't seen the 8yo OB from the 1990's for ages in Europe.
Europe - Dufftown 12yo - The 10yo OB from the 1990's has vanished from the shelves too.
Asia - Glen Ord 12yo - The old 12yo 'cube' OB was still available in Europe in 2008.

Glen Ord whisky

2004 - A 25 years old official bottling of Glen Ord is launched.
 
2007 - The 'Singleton' range is introduced; three different single malts for three different markets. Customers in Asia get the Glen Ord while whisky drinkers in the USA can enjoy a Glendullan malt whisky. Here in Europe a bottle of the 'Singleton' whisky is supposed to contain malt whisky distilled at the Dufftown distillery.