Whisky of the Week: Glenglassaugh 15 year old

Built on high ground overlooking the sea on Scotland’s north coast, Glenglassaugh Distillery has long been overlooked, mainly because it has been shuttered for much of its existence. If you ask master blender Dr. Rachel Barrie what makes Glenglassaugh so special, she’ll quickly point to its tropical spirit—with bright, summery flavors that emerge in the new make and continue to develop over time as it ages—thanks to its pear-shaped stills that increase reflux. Glenglassaugh’s house style is best described as spirit-forward, best showcased by the core range Sandend, which uses bourbon, sherry, and manzanilla casks. It’s a winning combination to be sure, earning Sandend our 2023 Whisky of the Year honor.

The rest of Glenglassaugh’s core range takes a similar tack. The 12 year old showcases the distillate at an older age with maturation in bourbon, sherry, and pinot noir casks. Portsoy brings smoke into the picture, tapping Highland peat sourced from Aberdeenshire and aging in a mix of bourbon, sherry, and port casks. All of these expressions have put the spirit front and center, but the distillery is doing something slightly different for its latest expression, a 15 year old that leans more heavily into cask influence.

A New Direction

The newcomer, with its 15-year age statement, is a permanent addition to the range. Some might assume that it’s simply an aged-up version of Glenglassaugh 12, but it’s a completely different whisky: It’s aged in a mix of PX sherry casks and red wine casks sourced from Spain’s Rioja region, and it’s also bottled slightly higher at 46% ABV.

Glenglassaugh 15 is noteworthy for being the oldest expression in the distillery’s current core collection, but its aging regimen also makes it stand out. For starters, it’s Glenglassaugh’s only permanent release to completely eschew bourbon barrels—a key ingredient that helps express the distillate’s tropical profile. Bourbon barrels are often seen as a way to introduce sweet vanilla, caramel, and oak notes as whisky ages, but they have more uses than that. For starters, they're less flavor-intensive and typically have a subtler influence than their sherry, port, or wine counterparts. That makes them a natural fit for producers like Glenglassaugh and Fettercairn who tout their tropical distillate, as it allows for these notes to shine through without being overshadowed or drowned out by too much barrel influence. By removing bourbon barrels from Glenglassaugh 15, the goal isn't to make the whisky less sweet; it's to shift the focus away from the distillate and toward the wine casks.

PX casks are also somewhat uncommon at Glenglassaugh, which typically uses other styles like oloroso for its single malts. There are, of course, a few exceptions. Back in November 2017, Glenglassaugh released a PX-finished single malt as part of a cask-centric quartet that also included expressions finished in virgin American oak and ruby port pipes. PX casks also occasionally showed up in the distillery’s Rare Cask Release expressions, with a 2011 vintage fully matured in PX butts and a 2012 vintage aged in slightly smaller PX puncheons.

Readers may recall that Glenglassaugh consolidated its production team with sister distillery Benriach last year, but it's still filling new casks and releasing whiskies from its ample reserves of aged casks, as evidenced by this release.

How Does Glenglassaugh 15 year old Taste?

94 points—Glenglassaugh 15 year old Highland single malt

ABV: 46%
SRP: $110
Availability: Nationwide

There’s an almost Christmassy quality to the nose, which offers raisins, plum pudding, dried cranberries, sangria, and pine cone, with undertones of gingerbread and graham crackers. The palate has compelling flavors of wine-soaked tropical fruits, sea salt, Medjool dates, prune juice, dried apricots, and plenty of Christmas spice. That spice really intensifies on the finish, which also brings black currant, grape, and grilled pineapple. It’s quite complex, but it shows great integration and balance throughout. A must-try for lovers of traditional sherried scotch.