Glen Garioch 15 Year Old - The Renaissance - Chapter One 2014 (70cl, 51.9%) ***sold***
This 15 year old limited release Glen Garioch is Chapter 1 of the The Renaissance Series.
Launched in 2014, this was followed by another three releases (four in total). The story tells of the reawakening of Glen Garioch distillery in 1997, and charted the maturation of its new house style.
The first release is an unpeated 15 year old single malt Scotch whisky matured in bourbon and Sherry casks. The whiskies from this series will all be distilled after 1997, a brief period where the distillery was closed. 12,000 bottles were produced.
Glen Garioch is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. For most of the 20th century it was self-sufficient, malting its own barley using peat from Pitsligo, giving it a unique smoky character. In fact, in 1968 it was short-listed by then-owners DCL, to convert to heavily peated production in order to make up for a shortfall on Islay caused by a drought. In an odd twist of fate, the decision was instead made to re-open Brora for the job, and close Glen Garioch down. Morrison Bowmore then sprang to its rescue, restarting production in 1973. The maltings and distillery were closed down again by Beam Suntory in 1995, and only the latter resumed operations two years later, with contemporary Glen Garioch becoming an un-peated single malt. The new style was introduced in the form of an 8 year old distillery bottling in 2006.