Glenkinchie is also known as 'The Edinburgh Malt' - which makes
sense, given its location near the city in the East Lothian foothills.
The distillery is located in the glen of the Kinchie Burn, not far from
the village of Pencaitland. The name 'Kinchie' is probably derived
from 'de Quincey', the name of the original owners of these lands.

The current owners (Diageo) link Glenkinchie to the Milton distillery
that was founded on the same location around 1825 by brothers
John & George Rate. For a period the distillery was operated by
James Gray of Leechman & Gray, but John Rate had control again
in 1852 - one year before the distillery fell silent. Glenkinchie was
sold to a farmer named Christie, who turned it into a sawmill.

Glenkinchie remained silent for a few decades; it wasn't until 1880 or 1881 that a consortium of brewers, blenders and wine merchant named Glen Kinchie Distillery Co. bought the buildings and started to reconstruct the distillery. In a way this revival was another fresh start for Glenkinchie, putting the actual foundation date of the current distillery even further away from the 1825 claim.
 
In 1914 five Lowland distilleries, including Glenkinchie, founded Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD).
A little more than a decade later, SMD was bought by Distillers Company Limited (DCL). During the second world war (1939-1945) Glenkinchie was one of the few distilleries in Scotland that remained in production. The traditional floor maltings at Glenkinchie were closed in 1968.

Glenkinchie has always operated with just two stills. However, what they lack
in numbers at the distillery they more than make up for in size; Glenkinchie has
one of the largest wash stills in Scotland (its contents are over 30,000 litres).
This wash still was replaced with a brand new one in the spring of 2008. Given
its massive size of both the old and the new still, the roof of the still house had
to be removed in order to replace the old still with the new one. Most of the
distilleries in Scotland have their stills built at the famous Forsyth's coppersmiths
and fabricators from Rothes, but Glenkinchie's new wash still was constructed
at Diageo's own coppersmith facilities.

The old floor maltings were turned into a distillation museum in 1969 by Alistair Munro, a former
manager at Glenkinchie. Meanwhile, the distillery itself kept churning out malt whisky in relative
obscurity for to more decades. This changed in 1988 when the six 'Classic Malts' were
launched by United Distillers (UD, the predecessors of Diageo). The 10 years old expression of
Glenkinchie represented the Lowlands while the other five regions were linked to five other UD
releases; Cragganmore (12 years old, Speyside), Dalwhinnie (15 years old, Highlands),
Lagavulin (16 years old, Islay), Oban (14 years old, Highlands) & Talisker (10 years old, Skye).
 
These six 'classic malts' have now been integrated in a larger portfolio called 'Classic Malts
Selection' which also includes distilleries like Caol Ila and Clynelish. Five of the original six
distilleries still use so-called 'worm tubs'; a fairly old fashioned technique for cooling the vapours
and fresh spirit that has just condensed at the top of the still. All stills need to be replaced at
some point (with each 'run' some of the copper dissolves in the whisky), and given the other
rationalisations in the industry, these worm tubs might be replaced too.

1) Glenkinchie was part of Diageo's original series of 6 'Classic Malts', together with Cragganmore, Dalwhinnie, Lagavulin, Oban and Talisker. This series was first released in 1988. Around 2005 a bunch of other distilleries were added to the range; Caol Ila, Cardhu, Clynelish, Glen Elgin, Glen Ord, Knockando and Royal Lochnagar.

2) A fairly unusual cast-iron worm tub is still used at Glenkinchie to condense the freshly distilled spirit.
The worm tub is two storeys high with a rectangular spiral instead of the usual round shape.

3) More trivia will be added later...
 

Glenkinchie 12yo (43%, OB, Bottled +/- 2008)
Nose: Farmy, on the relatively 'heavy' side. Changes rapidly over the first few seconds.
Based on the nose alone it would have scored in the lower 70's...
Taste: Gritty and slightly sour. Strong tannins; fairly harsh.
The finish grows extremely bitter, swiftly pulling the score into the lower 60's.
Score: 64 points - although most other maniacs rated it higher.

Glenkinchie 12yo Limited Edition (58.7%, OB, Bottled +/- 2004)
Nose: Sweet and smoky. Nicely balanced, but not very expressive at first.
A little grainy. Malty too, with what seems like a very subtle sherry influence.
No fruits. Instead, organics appear after a while. Hey wait, now I get melon.
Very pleasant, but it doesn't choose sides. A little too middle-of-the-road for me.
Taste: Big, hot and sweet start. It remains very hot - this is a real afterburner.
You can really 'feel' the higher proof in this one. Bitter towards the finish.
It does quite well on the palate - big and quite sweet at first, growing drier.
Score: 83 points - it's not complex enough to reach the upper 80's but I like it.
However, I should mention that it needs quite a while to get into the lower 80's.

Glenkinchie 20yo (58.4%, OB, 10yrs American refill + 10yrs brandy casks, Bottled 2007)
Nose: Beautiful balance. A little mainstream, but a fine example of a good, well-balanced whisky. Spices?
Taste: Smooth with a gentle fruity undercurrent. Quite sweet. In fact, is that the brandy I'm tasting?
Score: 83 points - it goes in the direction of a finished whisky but hangs together fairly well.

Glenkinchie 1992/2007 Distillers Edition (43%, OB, Amontillado Finish)
Nose: Fairly sharp and rough. Strong fruits, but not very well integrated.
Not much substance beneath the expressive surface.
Taste: Based on the nose it could have approached or even reached the lower 80's.
Howevel, IMHO it'd just not 'good' enough on the palate. Crude tannins and some aspirin.
Score: 75 points - I wouldn't actively recommend it, but it's a big step up from the regular 12yo OB.

Glenkinchie 1986 Distillers Edition (43%, OB, code G/273-7-D, Amontillado Finish, Bottled +/- 1999)
Nose: A lot of sherry added to the 'standard' character.
After a while, the sherry moves to the background and hints of honey and melon emerge.
Taste: 'Dusty'. Sherry, but very soft. The wood becomes more obvious over time.
More astringent and woody in the finish than the standard bottling.
Rating: 73 points - Quite nice actually; a dream within a dream... In this case, the double wood treatment pays off. This version is considerably better than the standard 10yo. version which received a rating of 66 points.

Glenkinchie 21yo 1978/1999 (60,8%, Signatory Vintage)
Nose: Pretty sharp, but it doesn't really advertise the cask strength. Couldn't find a lot there.
Sweet start, with a bit of artificial orange like in 'Fanta' lemonade at the end of every whiff.
Some smoke after a few minutes. More citrus and sweetness in the nose with some water.
Taste: Seems very sweet and surprisingly drinkable for a cask strength at first, until it reaches your throat.
Wow - What a burn. Time to add some water. Still full of sweet power. A bit more malty.
With an extra big splash of water (to about 30 Alc %) a lot more smoke in the nose, but little sweetness left.
The taste seems very soft at first, but explodes within seconds into a sweet burn. Very peppery finish.
Score: 79 points - Woehah! Very nice for a Glenkinchie, too bad I forgot the cask number.

Glenkinchie 10yo (43%, OB, Bottled +/- 1995, 70cl)
Nose: probably my least favourite 'classic malt'; typical young Lowland malts are not reallt my style.
The nose is soft and friendly with some sweetness. Rather complex, but too much water ruins this whisky.
Taste: showed interesting development, but remainded a bit bland. It's dry essence drifts away.
Score: 66 points - some people seem to like it a lot, but it's not my type of whisky.

Glenkinchie 17yo (46%, Cadenhead, Old dumpy bottle, Bottled 1980's)
Nose: Grainy and creamy - much 'mellower' than the 10yo OB I remember from the 1990's.
Some faint fruits and spices. Hint of smoke or peat? Italian sausages? Hint of chloride?
More and more organics emerge over time, eventually lifting it from the 70's into the lower 80's.
Taste: Sweetish start, growing fruitier in the centre. Winegums. Feels a little gritty, though.
Score: 80 points - and once again this is a malt that needs some time to reach its peak.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Glenkinchie 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.
 

The Lothians are famous for the high quality of the barley that is grown in the area. We can thank the 18th century 'Society of Improvers of Knowledge of Agriculture' for that; they introduced many improvements to the farming practices in Scotland. This society was founded by John Cockburn who was born in the village of Ormiston, a stone's throw away from Glenkinchie.

When Glenkinchie was founded in 1837, well over a hundred licensed distilleries were active in the Lowlands. However, at the end of the 20th century only three of them had survived; Glenkinchie, Auchentoshan and Bladnoch.
 
Fortunately, things looked up for the area a few years later when Daftmill (a micro distillery) and Ailsa Bay (a much larger project from William Grant & Sons) were constructed. Just like the Campbeltown area, it would seem that the Lowlands have started to recover from a very difficult time for distilling.