Glenturret in the Midlands claims to be Scotland's oldest whisky distillery.
In fact, they have boldly put that claim on their distillery buildings. Hmmm...
That's a little odd - given the fact that those buildings were not refurbished
before the late 1950's - and I'm pretty sure distillation of whiksy had been
invented at least three centuries earlier. There has been another distillery
by the name of Glenturret in the area (constructed in 1826), but that was
closed again within a few decades - and had nothing to do with this one.

The 'brand name' Glenturret was sold to Hosh distillery in 1875 - but that
distillery was also closed in 1921. All production equipment was removed
and until the late 1950's the remaining buildings were only used for storage
of cask of whisky. So, the distillery that bought the name went silent too...

It wasn't until 1957 that James Fairlie bought the old distillery buildings and re-equipped them with
brand new equipment. That means that the historic link with the old distillery was in name only; the
stills, washbacks and mashtuns actually shape the character of a whisky, buildings don't. The distillery
I'd like to call 'Glenturret Mark III' went into operation in 1959. That's a little ironic, because that
actually makes Glenturret one of Scotland's newest distilleries - not one of the oldest.
 
Well, we can always trust the PR people of the Edrington Group to boldly explore the conventional
borders between the truth and blatant lies - and sometimes happily skip across those boders when it
suits them. They also claimed that Macallan only used sherry casks when they hadn't for decades...

Remy Martin didn't hang on to Glenturret for very long; in 1990 Highland Distillers bought
the distillery. They were themselves bought by a partnership of two new owners; Edrington
Group (70%) and William Grant & Sons, the owners of Balvenie and Glenfiddich (30%). This
partnership (the '1887 Company Ltd.') controls malt distilleries like Macallan and Glenrothes.

Soon after acquiring United Distillers the new owners selected Glenturret as the
location for their 'Famous Grouse Experience' - a.k.a. 'Whisky Disney'. It may
not be the perfect experience for seasoned malt whisky imbibers, but those
who are not whisky nerds it can be an educational & enjoyable experience.
Building the new visitor center required an investment of over 2,5 million
pounds, but it may have been worth it - the Famous Grouse Experience
quickly became one of Scotland's premier tourist attractions.
 
Meanwhile, the 'presence' of Glenturret on the shelves of liquor stores
around the world has changed as well. During the 1990's a 12 years old
expression was available (a bottle is shown above; the label at the right),
but the profile was a little too 'oily' for me to go crazy over it. Nevertheless,
it was an excellent alternative to almost every 'premium' blended whisky in the
same price range. Nowadays Glenturret's 'standard' bottlings are 8yo and 10yo.

1) Given the fact that they founded their 'Famous Grouse Experience' at Glenturret distillery, it's hardly surprising that the Glenturret malt whisky is an important component of the Famous Grouse blended whisky.

2) The people at Glenturret had a knack for PR, even before the 1887 Company Ltd. took control in 1999.
In the 1980's they managed to get their distillery cat 'Towser' in the Guiness Book of Records for allegedly killing exactly 28,899 mice. Hmmmm... Let's think about that for a moment... How did they arrive at such a precise number? That would mean one or even several people at the distillery have had to keep detailed records of Towser's exploits. Surely that couldn't have been a full-time job, but still.... Think of all the USEFUL things they could have been doing in thouse thousands of hours - like trying to get rid of that oily smell of younger Glenturrets ;-)

3) More trivia will be added later...
 

Glenturret 10yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2005) - sampled quickly in Scotland
Nose: I found lemon, oil and fish in the nose, which was quite sweet.
Taste: It started smooth on the palate but grew quite gritty and dry over time. Some wood and spices.
Score: 70 points - which puts it precariously close to a 'questionable' status.
Fellow malt maniac Davin who tried it at the same time more or less agreed with 72 points.
That means we still haven't found a Glenturret OB yet we could recommend to anybody.
But we'll keep trying...

Glenturret 10yo 1991/2002 (55.5%, Hart Brothers, Distilled 10/1991, Bottled 9/2002, CVI)
Nose: Nice and sweet. Dusty. Paint thinner. Hint of cinnamon candy.
Nutty. More coastal with more organics with a few drops of water.
Reminds me a bit of a rye whisky. It needs some time to fully develop.
Taste: Simply wonderful! Sweet and dry - hard to describe but very enjoyable.
After adding a little water some liquorice emerges. A palate that beats the nose!
Score: 84 points - making it by far the best Glenturret I've tried so far. Impressive for a 10yo Midlander.

Glenturret 12yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 1996, 70cl)
Nose: Crisp, slightly oily. A bit like the Tormore 12 at first sight, which isn't a good thing, really.
Not very impressive - nose-wise. This was my first Glenturret, but I'm not in any hurry to try another.
Taste: Seems almost watery at first, but it lights up your mouth long after it's swallowed.
Despite the long afterglow not my type of malt; a preliminary rating around 70 points.
Score: 69 points - after trying it a second and a third time I couldn't put it in the 70's.

Glenturret 12yo 1990/2002 Sherry Finish (43%, Chieftain's, D. July, B. December, C#9076-9077, 1584 Bts.
Nose: My notes for this Chieftain's Choice expression are brief: "Very odd... Not my style, but very interesting."
Taste: Like with most other Glenturrets I've tried there were several oily / veggy elements in the taste.
Score: 70 points - very different from the 12yo OB from the 1990'a, but about the same score.

Glenturret 16yo 1988/2005 (50.1%, SMWS, 16.28, 'Violets and Vanilla Fudge')
Nose: Well, I get the vanilla... Can't quite get the violets, although it does have something perfumy.
Here it doesn't offend me though, like in old batches of the Bowmore Darkest - and I actually prefer it over oil.
Without it it might have been a fairly soul-less malt; now at least it has an identity. Not the 'house style' though.
Taste: A little sharper than I expected at 50%. Well, at least at first - then the oily staits smooth it over.
You can taste it has matured some extra years - but it must have been a fairly average cask. Plywood.
Score: 76 points - not bad (certainly for a Glenturret), but I expected a little more from the SMWS.

Glenturret 19yo 1978/1998 (43%, Ultimate) - a gift from my boss in 1999.
Nose: It's very light for a malt of almost 20 years old, both in colour and nose.
The bouquet develops into a faint sweetness. Not very impressive, nose-wise.
Taste: The taste is quite another story! A short, dry start is followed by one change after another.
Very complex; way better than the 12yo. old. If it hadn't been for the unimpressive nose, this would have been potential Top 10 material; one of the few malts that taste better than it smells. Now, it clocks in at 75 points.
Score: 75 points - but based on the taste alone it would have ended up in the mid-80's.
 

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

But then again Glenturret isn't the only malt whisky distillery in Scotland
making dubious claims about its heritage; Balblair, Bowmore , Oban
and Littlemill also brag about having their roots in the 18th century. In
some cases they actually have a solid claim with real ties to the past,
but Glenfarclas is one of the few distilleries where descendants of the
founders of the distillery are actually still involved in making the whisky.
So, let's focus on facts about Glenturret's more recent history, shall we?
 
For a few decades after James Fairlie first started up the new stills in
1959, not much seems to have happened at Glenturret. The French
drinks conglomerate Remy Cointreau bought the whisky distillery in
1981 - reminding us that 'foreign' investment in the Scotch whisky
industry isn't something that has emerged in recent years. The new
owners expanded the distillery with a visitor centre in the same year.