The Glenrothes malt whisky has always distinguished itself from the 'brands'
of most other distilleries by not having a regular 'range' of expressions like a
10 years old, a 12 years old, etcetera. Instead, they release different vintages
in different years, like a 1989 vintage in 2002 and a 1991 in 2005. That would
be an excellent policy if there would actually be big differences between them.
However, there usually are not - at least not to my relatively unrefined palate.

I actually think it's too bad - a few independent bottlings I've tried have proven
that they have some brilliant casks lying around at Glenrothes. I fear that a lot
of those beauties are currently 'drowned' into the mega-vattings that make up
each vintage of Glenrothes. The flip side of that coin is that I haven't found an
official bottling yet that scored below average - so Glenrothes is a 'sure bet'.

The first Glenrothes whisky was distilled in 1879 - although the distillery was officially founded
a year earlier. The founding fathers of Glenrothes were a colourful bunch that included James
Stuart (who had taken over the license of Macallan in 1868), John Cruickshank (a banker) and William Grant and Robert Dick (both from Caledonian Bank). The partnership soon dissolved
because of James Stuart's financial problems (he later sold the nearby Macallan distillery to
Roderick Kemp), but the others continued their whisky adventures as William Grant & Co.
Another William Grant would build the Glenfiddich distillery later, but that's another story.

William Grant & Company experienced a
growth spurt around the very same time
William Grant & Sons built Glenfiddich, but
like I said that's a different company. In
1887 William Grant & Co. merged with the
Islay Distillery Co. (who own Bunnahabhain)
to form Highland Distillers Company Ltd.
 
The capacity of Glenrothes was expanded
in 1898 when they doubled the number of
stills from two to four. They added another
pair in 1963, another pair in 1980 and yet
another pair in 1989, bringing the total to
ten stills at the Glenrothes distillery.

The fairly steady expansion of the number of stills could indicate that the
history of Glenrothes has been relatively uneventful, but the distillery has
actually enjoyed a fairly 'explosive' history - especially around the start of
the 20th century. In December 1897 there was a massive fire at the young
distillery. It caused quite a bit of damage, but it also gave them the perfect
excuse to add two more stills in 1898. The bitter pills of a big explosion in
1903 and another big fire in 1922 (this time in the warehouses) were not
sweetened like that, but they made up for that in more recent times.
Despite ten stills blazing away, Glenrothes is now a picture of tranquility...

CORRECTION - Contrary to what I wrote earlier, Glenrothes
now also offers at least one 'regular' expression without vintages,
the 'Select Reserve'. If I'm not mistaken this was first released circa
2005. The 'Select Reserve' whisky from Glenrothes doesn't specify a
year of distillation or a year of bottling - and the label doesn't carry an
age statement either. Around the same time a 30 years old 'top of the
line' bottling was released as well. The maniacs that tried it were happy...

1) The labels of the OB's from the 1990's and early 2000's have printed signatures for the 'checked' and 'approved' dates on the label. This gives the impression that these are small batches, but in fact all the 'vintage' releases are massive 'vattings' of many different casks. And the dates themselves don't always make a lot of sense either. My 1987/2000 vintage was checked by one J. L. Stevens on 23/5/'87. That makes sense; I assume that was on (or around) the distillation date. But the fact that it was approved by someone who's name I can't read (R. H. Fenwick?) on 3-9-98 while the whisky was bottled in 2000 makes no sense at all. The fact that all the (printed) 'approved' dates on the labels are identical suggests that the date applies to either all the casks in the vatting or the vatting itself. OK - let's think about that a little, shall we? If the vatting itself was 'approved' on September 3, 1998 and it was bottled in 2000, where did they keep the vatted whisky for over a year? You'd need one very big container, that's for sure. I guess the big players like Edrington must have some huge blending vessels available but I imagine they don't want to use those for long -term storage. On the other hand, if all the casks in the vatting were individually approved on a single day in 1998 and then the casks were left alone to mature for more than a year longer, wouldn't the wood of the casks have worked its magic in the time between approval and bottling, altering the whisky in all kinds of unpredictable ways? And then, what's the use of approving them? Strange indeed...

2) Berry Brothers in London are licensed to release all the official bottlings of Glenrothes.

3) The new owners of Glenrothes (as well as Glenturret, Glenglassaugh, Highland Park and Macallan are an investment vehicle known as 'The 1887 Company Ltd.". It's controlled by the Edrington Group (70%) and Wm Grant & Sons (30%) - who also own Balvenie and Glenfiddich.

4) More trivia will be added later.
 

Glenrothes 8yo (40%, MacPhail's Collection, black label, Bottled 1990's)
Nose: Big, fruity and sherried. Wonderful sweetness. Very pleasant. Slightly alcoholic, not unlike rum.
Whiffs of spices and liquorice. Surprisingly powerful. It reminded me a bit of the Macallan 10yo.
Taste: Complete absence of sweetness at first. Very woody.
Seems younger in the taste than in the nose. Short, gritty finish.
Score: 79 points - the nose is notably more refined than the taste; needs a slightly higher proof?

Glenrothes 1992/2004 (43%, OB)
Nose: Hey, very fragrant with oriental spices. Cow stable. Quite interesting.
Again I find something like clay. Dead crabs on the beach? Is that a hint of oil?
Water melon. Nice, but it fizzles out too soon after a very promising start.
Taste: Sweet, solid and fruity. A hint of liquorice. Lemon? Nothing outspoken.
Woody, thin and a tad too 'winey' in the finish for me. Dries out very rapidly.
Score: 77 points - There's plenty of fun to be had but it's just too dry in the finish.
Hmmm, maybe a tad underwhelming for a 12yo Glenrothes?

Glenrothes 1987/2002 (43%, OB)
Nose: Mellow, malty and very sweet. Heather honey. Lovely! A bit like Balvenie 12?
Something fruity as well - but very subtle. This grows much more powerful with time.
Wonderfully balanced. Some intriguing organics in the back of the nose. Maggi! Tea?
Taste: Sweet, but fairly superficial in start and centre. More and more smoke over time.
Not unlike a peatless Bowmore. After a few minutes it seemed to grow more powerful.
There's a lot to love here, but it dries out - it grows very hot and dry over time.
Score: 84 points - but please note that it needs some time to reach its full potential.
Especially the empty glass is lovely - and quite unique. This dram left me utterly satisfied.

Glenrothes-Glenlivet 16yo 1990/2007 (57,3%, Cadenhead's Authentic Collection, Rum Butt, 588 Bts.)
Nose: Old, deep fruits. Lovely polished profile. Cinnamon? Coffee? Spices. Organics. Tobacco.
Some farmy notes. Becomes extremely complex.
Taste: Serious sherry. Wonderful hot & smooth centre.
Coffee bitterness in the finish, evolving into wood - lots of wood.
Score: 90 points - but I should add that not all jurors of the MM Awards 2007 scored it as high.

Glenrothes 1972/2004 (43%, OB)
Nose: Polished but not very expressive. Glue and old coffee? Very restrained at first. Old cigarette smoke.
Hey, wait... during round two it seems completely different! Big and fruity. Polished. Very nice.
There's still a prickle in the nose, but now I enjoy it. This is actually a very enjoyable and refined single malt.
Taste: Watery start ast first. Tia Maria. Sherried with a touch of smoke. Some tannins. Metallic. Doesn't sit well.
Just like the nose it improved a lot during the 2nd & 3d round. Sweet, big and fruity on the palate. malty finish.
Score: 84 points - after a long debate with myself I decided on a final score of 84 points - a solid single malt.

Glenrothes 36yo 1968/2005 (53.2%, Ducan Taylor, Cask #13486, 144 bottles)
Nose: Serious and very sherried. Developing fruits soften it up a bit. Furniture polish.
Once again the sherry is the most obvious trait in the bouquet. Whiffs of mint and Velpon.
Not much else going on with the nose, though. I love the profile but it could use some more depth.
Taste: Sweet and fruity. A big burn. The sweetness slowly fades away in the dry finish.
Very fruity on the palate - ripe and fermenting fruits. Big, almost smoky burn in the centre.
Score: 86 points - Highly recommendable, although I can't pick out specific highlights.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Glenrothes 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 picture at the right shows some of the certified malt maniacs during a 'fact finding mission' in Speyside, Scotland in 2003. In the foreground you can find (from left to right) Craig Daniels, Krishna Nukala and Cutty Sark's Ronnie Cox who seem to have made themselves comfortable on a cask. In the background Serge Valentin, Davin de Kergommeaux, yours truly and  Craig's wife Rosemary are simply in awe of their feline grace.
 
As for the Cutty Sark logo on the wall behind us; the Glenrothes malt whisky is an important ingredient of the blend and its visitor centre (which includes a comfortable tasting room) is located at Glenrothes. There are strong ties with blender and independent bottler Berry Brothers from London as well; they are the agents that market and sell the range of Glenrothes malt whiskies. Pretty successful too, it seems - perhaps partly due to the distinctive shape of the bottles.

Do you remember 'the other William Grant' ('& Sons') I mentioned earlier?
They were born around the same time as Glenrothes and had spent the
century wisely by growing into one of the whisky industry's leading compa-
nies with their brands Glenfiddich & Balvenie. In 1999 William Grant & Sons
partnered up with the Edrington Group to buy Highland Distillers Limited,
the parent company of Glenrothes. I believe it was a 50/50 partnership that
also gave them control of Bunnahabhain (since sold on), Glenglassaugh
(since mothballed), Glenturret, Highland Park, Macallan and Tamdhu. That
makes William Grant & Sons and the Edringtom Group the #3 and #4 on
the list of Scotland's top producers, between Pernod Ricard at #2 with 12
distilleries and then Bacardi at #5 with five distilleries.

The maturing malt whisky that's produced at Glenrothes is stored
in one of sixteen warehouses on the distillery grounds; twelve
of the traditional 'dunnage' type and four racked warehouses.
The nearby 'Rothes House' is a sight for sore eyes as well.