When King George IV visited Scotland in 1822, whisky was as
much part of Scottish society and culture as it is today. Strictly
speaking, producing and and selling whisky was illegal - but it
still happened everywhere in Scotland. To bring some sense of
order to the situation, the government introduced a system of
rules and customs in 1823 and lowered the price of a license.

Thanks to the reduced licensing costs the small illegal distillers
in the Highlands were now also able to obtain a license. One
of the first distillers to step forward was George Smith who
rented a small farm from the Duke of Richmond and Gordon.
George was a farmer, but also a scholar of latin & architecture.

George Smith had actually started distilling whisky when it was still illegal. This was a 'cottage industry'
though; he managed to produce no more than 50 gallons (200 liters) of whisky each week. The decision
to apply for a license was viewed as treacherous by George's illegal neighbours - or at least a form of
unfair competition. Consequentially, George Smith received numerous threats from his neighbours. Later
he wrote about this early period of Glenlivet: "I was warned before I began by my civil neighbours that
they meant to burn my new distillery to the ground, and me in the heart of it". But that didn't stop him...
The first few years were difficult, but George Smith maneged to survive - perhaps partly thanks to a pair
of 'hair trigger pistols' he carried with him night and day. Arsonists were suitably deterred...

The pistols were a personal gift from the Laird of Aberlour who was impressed with the
perseverance of George Smith. Glenlivet still honours its founder; the aforementioned
pistols are exhibited at the distillery and the name of George Smith can still be found
on the labels. The fact that he was a man of vision was proven by the fact that a mere
ten years after the Glenlivet distillery received its license in 1824 all illegal competition
in the Glen Livet valley had been eradicated.

After a many legal battles in court, only the Glenlivet distillery is allowed to use the name THE Glenlivet.

1) In 2008 Chivas Brothers announced that they are planning to further expand their Glenlivet distillery.
They will be adding a new mash tun, six stills and eight washbacks.

2) The site of the first Glenlivet distillery was at George Smith's own farm at Upper Drumin, a little over a mile North of the current site at Minmore. As production expanded, George Smith and his son John Gordon built the current distillery at the site of Minmore Farm in 1858.

3) More trivia will be added later...
 

Here are my notes on some 'core range' OB's, followed by a selection of my personal favourits.

Glenlivet 12yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2001, LH10593, 100cl).
I think this is one of the runner ups to Glenfiddich in the international sales stakes.
Nose: Sweet, malty and fruity. Some gentle organics as well - that's surprising.
It actually seems to be a little more expressive in the nose than previous batches.
Taste: Not as sweet as the nose. Feels very rough on the palate. Loses points here.
Score: 75 points - not a bad malt, but not nearly characteristic enough for me.
No obvious 'faults', but nothing to fall in love with either. So far, Glenlivets seem to need at least two decades (preferably three) before they reach their full potential - but when they do, watch out. Older Glenlivets that have been aged in a good sherry cask can rival anything from the sherry powerhouses of Aberlour, Glenfarclas or Macallan.

Glenlivet 18yo (43%, OB, LN10322, Bottled +/- 2003)
Nose: Gentle, malty with a whiff of citrus. Other fruits as well. Sweet. Accessible.
Grows more complex with time. Organics in the background. Very classy but fairly MOTR.
Palate: Smooth, but it lacks substance. Hint of sherry in the sweet centre. Grows hot.
Fairly gritty finish with a slightly bitter twang at the end. Clean and not too long.
Score: 80 points . Solid craftsmanship. There's little else I can say about this one.

Glenlivet 1983/2003 French Oak Finish (46%, OB, 2L7F901, The Glenlivet Cellar Collection)
Nose: Slightly oily, growing sweeter. Malty. Hint of smoke. Not very expressive at first.
Maltier and more balanced after some breathing - a classic and classy malt whisky.
Palate: Fairly soft start, growing more powerful. A bit bitter. Very dry, woody finish.
Score: 78 points after a second investigation, but it reached only 77 points on the first tasting.

Glenlivet 26yo 1976/2002 (59.7%, Signatory Vintage for La Maison du Whisky, Sherry cask #4309, 794 Bts.)
Nose: Aaah... Big, smooth and sherried with a hint of polished oak. Wonderful!
Spices and organics. Smoke? Macallanish. Old rotting fruit - which is a good thing...
Palate: Sweet, fruity and very powerful. Dried apples. Clean and smooth. Pinch of salt?
Hot. With a splash of water the smoke comes to the front. Pleasant dry fruitiness.
Score: 88 points - it might be just a tad too extreme for some, but I love it. A gentle sherry monster...

Glenlivet 30yo (55.2%, Anniversary Selection, Sukhinder Singh, 375 botles)
Nose: Coffee - or Buysman burnt caramel? Old and fruity. Beautiful stuff. Balanced but not very expressive.
Taste: Slightly smoky, big, woody and fruity. Big wood in the finish too - making it a little harsh.
Score: 87 points - a tad too heavy on the wood on the palate to earn a gold medal in the MM Awards 2007.

Glenlivet 1975/2006 (54%, Berry Bros, C#10846)
Nose: Sweet, fruity and polished in the nose. A tad nutty? I forgot to make further notes.
Taste: Quite sherried on the palate with a hint of smoke - and quite a few tannins in the finish.
Score: 87 points - very pleasant, but, a little too tannic to reach the 90's in my book.

Glenlivet 36yo 1968/2005 (48.6%, Duncan Taylor, Sherry cask #6195, 136 bottles)
Nose: Rich. Mocca. Sweet coffee. Hint of old smoke. The nose drops off fairly quickly, though.
Hoo-aah!. Brilliant spices and organics - dirty dishes the morning after an Indonesian meal.
Sherry. Then fruits, mocca and coffee. It smells cold, if that makes any sense... Smoky and a little metallic.
Taste: Brilliant mouth feel. Touch of rubber. Very hot. Lovely tannins. Some old, sweet coffee again.
Score: 88 points - which might turn out to be a conservative score. I think I've just burnt my nose...

Glenlivet 1965/2007 (46%, Gordon & MacPhail, Cask #6733)
Nose: Light & floral. Nice but not very complex. Quite sharp. Opens up over time.
Taste: Something perfumy perhaps? Solid sweet centre. Leather? Again, heavy tannins in the finish.
Score: 83 points - which wasn't enough to make a very big impression on me in the MM Awards 2007.
 

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

Even after the court's decision some other distilleries and bottlers bravely continued to use the name 'Glenlivet' on their labels. Many of the old Cadenhead's bottlings from the 1980's still have the word 'Glenlivet' printed boldly behind the name of the distillery. In fact, even in the third millennium their range included bottlings like Aultmore-Glenlivet, Balmenach-Glenlivet, Balvenie-Glenlivet, Convalmore-Glenlivet, etcetera. As far as official bottlings are concerned: a Balmenach-Glenlivet 14yo OB was bottled in the 1970's and I have a wonderful 'kitsch' bottle of 'Tomintoul Glenlivet 12' from the 1980's on my shelves when I write this. It actually looks more like a perfume bottle. Another legendary antique bottling came from a distillery that's actually located some twenty kilometers to the North of the Glenlivet distillery; the 'Aberlour Glenlivet' 8 years old.
Some batches prove that a malt whisky doesn't really need 20 or 30 years of ageing.

But this didn't mean that Glenlivet wouldn't have any more competing neighbours...
The fame of the Glen Livet valley had already widely spread at the time of the visit
of King George IV to Edinburgh; some people claim he actually asked for it by name.
Because the name of the 'terroir' became very well known, more and more distilleries
in the area added 'Glenlivet' to their own name. A joke from those days was that the
name 'Glenlivet' meant 'The long Valley' - because so many distilleries were located
there. Until 1984, many distillers still put 'Glenlivet' behind their name on their labels.

When I write this, the Glenlivet distillery is able to produce some six million litres of pure
alcohol per year. That's quite a bit more than the circa 10,000 litres that George Smith
was able to produce each year less than two centuries ago. The brand is available in
more than a hundred different countries, so it's safe to say that Glenlivet is breathing
down Glenfiddich's neck in the ongoing race for the title of biggest selling malt whisky.