Glen Keith 1996 20 Year Old - Distiller's Art (Langside) (70cl, 48%) ***sold***
This 1996 vintage Glen Keith comes from indie bottlers Langside Distillers as part of the Distiller's Art series. This was matured for 20 years in a refill hogshead, which yielded 351 bottles in 2016.
Glen Keith was built by Canadian drinks giant, Seagram, in the late 1950s to supply malt for their Chivas, 100 Pipers and Passport blends. The distillery was an experimental facility, with a range of different stills, trialling different mash and yeast types, and methods of peat smoking. One of the peated variants it produced was the rare Glenisla. Seagram collapsed in the early 2000s, and Glen Keith was perhaps an early indication of its ill-fate, closing in 1999. It was re-opened in 2013 by Chivas Brothers, who continue its experimental traditions by housing their lab there. Despite its importance to Seagram blends, Glen Keith was always deemed worthy of bottling as a single malt, both by the distillery and by independent companies.
Langside Distillers started out as a blending company in the 1970s, producing Scotch brands such as B&B, Glen Drumm and John Player Special. They moved into the business of bottling independent single malts with their Douglas of Drumlanrig label in the 2000s, before becoming a subsidiary of Hunter Laing in 2013. Nowadays they produce its Distiller’s Art and Hepburn’s Choice bottlings.