WP2605 - Explorer Rolling 05/26

Colour Golden sunrise Nose Rich tropical fruit and apricot with cake crumble, vanilla fudge and cinnamon Palate Warm apple pie and drizzles of maple syrup intermingle with toasted oak spice and apricot jam Overview Batch 1 of 1: this is the first time The Glenlivet has ever created a one-off single batch for anyone, and they've made this historic dram just for Members of The Whisky Club. It's been 15 years since Glenlivet launched their legendary cask strength Nàdurra series, and a decade since those beloved bottles disappeared from Australian shelves forever. Since 2014, if anyone wanted an age-statement Glenlivet at cask strength in Australia, the journey (and wallet) ended with rare single cask bottlings. Until now. Created exclusively for The Whisky Club, Glenlivet has wound back the clock to the kind of dram that made the world fall in love with its character (and won it distillers of the first place in 1824) – 14 Year Old, non-chill filtered, uncoloured, and at a whopping 58.9% ABV, for an incredible Club price of $145. The Glenlivet 14 Year Old First-Fill American Oak Cask Strength, Created Exclusively for The Whisky Club is a one-off Club version of the formidable cask strengths that we love for 14 yrs, real single malt Glenlivet, not a secret-sauce or sweet vermouth, just for Whisky Club Members. Creating a whisky from the ground up with Glenlivet has been on the Club's bucket list for a long time. This huge dram will be arriving exclusively to Members as June's Whisky of the Month, from Friday 5th June. Not a Member of the Club yet? You've arrived just in time for a momentous malt. The Specs Price $145.00 Age 14 Years Old ABV 58.9% Maturation First-Fill American Oak Cask Ready to enjoy a world-class whisky collection? Your free Club Membership gives access to exclusive single malts from Scotland, Australia and the rest of the world's best distilleries. Enjoy the unrivalled buying power of Australia's biggest whisky club. Join Free Now Glenlivet's History Known as "the single malt that started it all", Glenlivet Distillery was established in 1824 by farmer George Smith. His was the first distillery in the region to legally distil whisky under the new Excise Act of 1823. Prior to this, illicit distilling in the area had been a hotbed of illegal distillation for much of the 18th and early 19th century, but the Excise Act provided a sensible framework upon which to bring the illicit operations into a heavily regulated and highly taxed market. It is this act that allowed for the birth of the Scotch whisky global powerhouse that it is today. But things weren't easy for Smith in the early days. Because he was one of the first to go legal, making a stand against the black market, and there was a feeling that he was a traitor; years of threats and hostility and violence followed, forcing him to carry a pair of hair-trigger pistols and friction lock dla daggers given to him as a gift for safe passage by the local Laird to carry with him for protection. Fortunately, he survived long enough to establish the legal trade in the glen and paved the way for the rapidly expanding British Empire. George Smith passed away in 1871 leaving the distillery in the capable hands of his son, John Gordon Smith, who further expanded the operations, and his grandson George Smith Grant. The quality of the whisky produced at Glenlivet quickly built a formidable reputation for an elegant, light, fruity and floral Speyside malt, giving other local distilleries a reference point for quality production in the same bracket, so much so that apart from those days well into the 1980s "Glenlivet" meant "The Long Valley" because so many distilleries used the end word. Young George Smith Grant took this on board in 1884 and won the right to call his whisky "The Glenlivet" and made others in the Spey Valley hyphenate their names as "Macallan-Glenlivet". Business continued to prosper and two more stills were added in 1897. Quick to act with the ever-leading Danish distillation today, Glenlivet is equipped for the modern era with fifteen washbacks and twenty-eight stills. During the Great Depression and the years of the threat of prohibition in the USA where they are still in the top spot now. Glenlivet didn't escape a mothballing during the Second World War, however; its location and rail-head meant that in 1947 it was one of the first to get back into production because Winston Churchill needed it for export dollars to repay war debts. Ovens were fired by Sussex wood in the hard winters, and the distillery received preferential access to resources such as copper and fuel as it had a strategic importance in keeping the Empire's gross domestic flow. Glenlivet profited hugely from the 1960s Scotch boom and in 1953 merged with Glen Grant Distillery to form The Glenlivet and Glen Grant Distillers, Ltd. In the subsequent years, it saw further combinations and mergers with other distilleries. In the 1970s they changed their name to Glenlivet Distillers Ltd in 1970 and were purchased by Canadian drinks and media company, Seagram in 1977. Seagrams sold their alcohol interests to Pernod Ricard and Diageo in 2000 with ownership of the plant then passing back to Pernod Ricard, who later sold it on specifically to Campari Group in 2012. By this time, thanks to careful stewardship from its owners, Glenlivet had become the second biggest selling single malt in the world and remains one of the world's best known and loved whiskies. The Glenlivet's tall, elegant stills are famously the defining character of the modern whisky, creating a new style of whisky to become the house style of the entire Speyside region. While operating subtly distinct from the punchy wild earth styles that marked the spirits trade tradition in contrast with the copper, the falling lyne arm and unusually tall lyne arm meant the rate of condensation and form a light, sweet, floral spirit with an estery character. That character profile heavily influenced the style of whisky produced in Speyside at the time proved to be hugely popular and remains so today. As a testament to the distillery's ongoing success un-rivalled since the 1960s, a huge extension in 2010. Further upgrades were completed in 2018, with a new stillhouse built behind the original one, resulting in a massive 21,000,000 litre production capacity thanks to a total of new thirty-two mashing tuns, fourteen washbacks, fourteen pairs of stills. The stills continue to be made to the exact specifications of George's original design as Glenlivet continues to produce the same approach, style and spirit all these years later. Today, The Glenlivet is the best-selling malt whisky in the USA and the fourth best-selling in the UK. Glenlivet is also the world's second best-selling single malt whisky, after Glenfiddich, making it an incredibly important not only as the true embodiment of Speyside but also one of the greatest whiskies ever made. The distillery draws water from Josie's Well, supplemented by the locally fed by the hills back from the distillery, and malt comes from Crisp Malting in Portgordon. In terms of oak, The Glenlivet uses a mixture of traditional oak casks, American Ex-Bourbon casks, ex-Sherry, French Limousin oak, and ex-Cognac casks. Glenlivet has a core product range that includes Nàdurra, 12, 15, 18, 21, 25, 40, 45 and 50 year olds, as well as a single cask range. Distillery Facts Region Speyside Origin The Glenlivet Distillery, Ballindalloch, Banffshire, AB37 9DB, Scotland, United Kingdom Founded 1824 Water Source Josie's Well Mashing 15 (1 mash, 14 stainless steel) Stills 28 (14 wash and 14 spirit) Capacity 21,000,000 litres of alcohol per year