Glenesk / Hillside whisky

Glenesk (a.k.a. Glen Esk, Hillside, a.k.a. Highland Esk, a.k.a.
North Esk) used to be a flax-spinning mill, but in 1897 it was
converted into a malt whisky distillery by wine merchants
Septimus Parsonage & Co. The distillery was closed during the
first world war and remained silent until 1938. The Glenesk
distillery is located in Montrose in the eastern Highlands and
operated intermittently as a grain whisky distillery under
that name from 1938 to 1964.
 
In that year it was transffered to SMD, who converted it back
to a malt distillery under the name 'Hillside'. The name was
changed to 'Glenesk' in 1980, but that didn't do much good...
The distillery closed in 1985 and the distilling license was
cancelled in 1992 by the owners SMD. That's the whole story
in a tiny nutshell, but Thomas Lipka wrote a far bigger profile;

1) The last owner of Hillside (at the time it was closed) was William Sanderson & Sons Ltd.
The last owner under the name 'Glenesk' was DCL; Distillers Company Limited.

2) In 1938 a continuous still (Coffey still a.k.a. patent still) was installed.

3) Drum type maltings were added to Hillside / Glenesk in 1968.
During the reconstruction 24 germination drums were added, each holding up to 31 tons of barley.

4) More trivia about Hillside / Glenesk will be added later.
 

Glenesk 1975/2005 (55.3%, The Cross Hill, Jack Wieber's, 210 bottles)
Nose: Rich. Mocca. Growing feintier, then sweeter. Pickles! Drops off after a few minutes.
Taste: Big, round and sweet at cask strength. Fruity overtones. A solid malt. Very enjoyable.
Score: 83 points - down from 86/87 during the first few minutes. Can't quite keep up the pace...

Glenesk 32yo 1971/2003 (49.7%, Douglas Laing Platinum, 258 bottles)
Nose: Restrained start, quickly developing into a candy sweetness. Watery and slightly floral. Cheese cake.
Taste: Hmmmm... Not 'bad' as such, but a little flat and generic. Plywood? Decidedly pulls it from the 80's...
Score: 76 points - this whisky took over three decades to reach 'average'... Still, my 'best' expression so far...

Glenesk 1984/1997 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseur's Choice, 70cl)
Nose: A little spirity. Paint thinner. String beans? Rotting hay? Vinegar? Some light 'grainy' fragrances.
Taste: Warm and malty. Sweet in the middle, gritty in the tail. Hint of pine and resin. Better than the nose.
Score: 58 points - in some other released I could get over the piny character, but not in this one.

Hillside 25yo 1971/1997 (62,0%, UDRM, Bottled Sept. 1997, Bottle #1512, 70cl)
Nose: Strange. Pine? Resin? Triplex? Unimpressive. It improves a little later on, with the smell of cookies & fruit.
Taste: Very light, almost drinkable at 62%. The primary impression is menthol. Diluted, pine and resin emerge.
Score: 66 points - well, it's definitely not bland...

Glen Esk 13yo 1982/1995 (66.5%, Cadenhead's, D. 04/'82, Btl. 06/'95)
Nose: Starts farmy & organic; not as spirity as you'd expect. Flattens out but makes a comeback.
Peanut & other oily & nutty smells. Dentist? Hint of wood smoke; wet branches rather than dry logs.
Taste: A little sweet & sour at cask strength. Excellent 'sipping' whisky. Burning in big gulps.
Score: 78 points - and it could very well be the highest proof whisky I've ever tried.

Glenesk 12yo (40%, OB, Silver Import, 1980s)
Nose: Extremely restrained. Maybe something oily? Something sour with hints of pine and menthol. Oxidised.
Taste: Flat and gone within seconds. Clearly, this bottle has died. The score of 60 is merciful.
Score: 60 points - and that's not even the lowest scoring Glenesk I've ever tried.

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

Glenesk is situated near Montrose, on the East Coast of Scotland, not far from the River North Esk which also is Glenesk's water source. The meaning of the name is 'Valley of Esk', but Misako Udo also submits that it derives from 'Glen uisge', which means 'Glen of the water'. Probably the most exciting part about Glenesk is the fact that its name has been changed a lot of times. The Glenesk distillery was converted from a flax-spinning mill in 1897. It was originally named the 'Highland Esk Distillery', and was established by Septimus Parsonage & Co and James Isles (Dundee wine merchants). In 1899 the distillery was taken over by J. F. Caille Heddle who renamed it North Esk Distillery. It seems seems to have produced whisky continously until a fire destroyed the distillery.

Now it gets a little bit fuzzy, because none of the sources I referred to actually names a date when the fire occurred. However, all agree that the distillery was silent in World War I (and later again in WW II) because the British Army used the buildings. Only in 1938 the distillery was re-opened and re-equipped to produce grain whisky by new owner Joseph W Hobbs who acquired it for Associated Scottish Distillers Ltd. Again, the name was changed and it was called Montrose this time.

It was then sold to Distillers Company Limited in 1954, was operated on and off  until it was acquired by Scottish Malt Distillers (formerly a Distillers Company Limited subsidiary and later subsumed into United Distillers) in 1964, and finally reverted to producing malt whisky under the name of 'Hillside' again. The distillery saw the installation of a large drum maltings in 1968 which was enlarged in 1973, before William Sanderson & Sons Ltd. acquired the license and finally renamed the distillery 'Glenesk'. Sanderson & Son was especially known for their blend 'VAT 69' and Glenesk was an important part of it. But nonetheless it took only five more years before Glenesk's fate was finally sealed. In December 1985 the distillery was closed and the license was returned in 1992 which pretty much destroyed the last hope for those hoping for Glenesk to pick up work again.

Except for the maltings, the buildings were demolished in 1996.
The maltings were sold to Paul's Malt Ltd. in 1996 and two years later to Greencore (the Irish Maltings company).
There are not that many Glenesk/Hillside bottlings to be found. The official single malt range seems to consist of:

- Glenesk 5yo (40%, OB)
- Glenesk 12yo (40%, OB, Wm Sanderson, 75 cl, bottled in the 1980s)
- Glenesk 24yo 1969 (60%, 25th Anniversary of Maltings, 75cl)
- Hillside 12yo
- Hillside - Glenesk 25yo 1970 (60,1%, UD Rare Malts)
- Hillside 25yo 1971/1997 (62%, UD Rare Malts)
- Hillside 25yo 1969/1995 (61.9%, UD Rare Malts)

Some independent bottlers like Gordon& MacPhail, Cadenhead's, Douglas Laing, Signatory, McKillop's Choice and
Jack Wieber also have presented bottlings, but that seems to be about what is (or was...) available.

Thomas Lipka - certified malt maniac