The Treasure of Oldmeldrum, Glen Garioch Distillery

Aberdeenshire and Angus are Scotland’s granary. Here you’ll find huge fields running toward the horizon and producing the little grains every distillery in Scotland desperately needs. It’s in this landscape where you’d expect to find loads of distilleries, but in fact there are few, the fertile land zealously reserved for growing that most lordly of whisky ingredients: Barley. The small farm town of Oldmeldrum stands northwest of Aberdeen, and here you’ll find the most easterly distillery in Scotland: Glen Garioch.

Glen Garioch (pronounced geery) distillery takes its name from the Garioch, a huge tract of fertile land nearby. Glen Garioch is among the oldest officially established distilleries in Scotland as it hails from 1797. Thomas Simpson built the distillery and it changed hands several times in the ensuing centuries (!!). Many other distilleries opened and closed in the interim, and it was Glen Garioch’s inclusion in the popular VAT69 blend that may have saved it from a similar fate.

Glen Garioch wasn’t immune to the whisky industry’s tumultuous times, however, as it was closed and decommissioned in 1968. Five years later Glen Garioch resumed production under whisky titan Stanley P. Morrison, and the distillery underwent several expansions and upgrades through the late 70s and early 80s, including the first conversion to gas-fired stills in Scotland.

Suntory purchased Morrison Bowmore in 1984, and this marks a turning point in Glen Garioch’s style. Traditionally, Glen Garioch was a peated malt whisky with a somewhat smokey character, but after Suntory’s acquisition Glen Garioch’s whisky drifted toward fruitier, less peaty expressions. In 1995 Glen Garioch closed again, and when it reopened in 1997 the distillery no longer produced whiskies with any peat and outsourced ancillary production like floor maltings.

None of this history was known to me when I dropped in to visit Glen Garioch on a sunny May day having just left Stonehaven en route to Pennan. The magic of serendipity brought me here just minutes before the day’s only tour, and I happily inserted myself for a look at this quiet and venerable distillery in eastern Scotland.

Elliot, a flame-haired young man from Carlisle, led a small group through Glen Garioch’s basics. This is a small, farm-style distillery that can trace its Concerto barley to the exact fields around Oldmeldrum and Aberdeenshire where it’s harvested. The barley is malted off-site but milled through a traditional Porteus mill and mashed using the tried-and-true method of three waters of increasing temperature with the final water reserved for the next mash’s first water.

After a fairly short fermentation of 48 hours in stainless steel washbacks, Glen Garioch has a wash between 7-8% ABV that’s ready for distillation in one of Glen Garioch’s three stills.

The stills weren’t running the day of my visit but that meant we got an inside view of the heating apparatus. The stills themselves are moderately sized with downward-angled lyne arms that would introduce a certain body and oiliness to the finished product. Elliot mentioned that back in the day employees started the day with a dram of newmake spirit and I couldn’t help wondering why visitors didn’t.

After two distillations, the spirit stands at a robust 72% ABV. It’s trucked down to Glasgow where it’s watered down to 63.5% and filled into barrels (usually Sherry, Bourbon, or hogsheads) before being trucked back up to Glen Garioch for aging. The warehouses on site hold between 7,500 and 8,000 barrels.

After an extended period of time inhaling vapors from a 1985 cask, we returned to the gift shop for a tasting of Glen Garioch’s whisky. We started with a sip of the newmake spirit which was a delicate mix of fruit and grain beneath the extremely high proof ABV. Interestingly, these fine flavors grew from a robust backbone so the spirit has great body. Ideal for aging.

We then tasted the 12yo, 15yo Sherry cask matured, and 16yo The Renaissance. All of Glen Garioch’s whisky showed skill in the crafting, and since all were at least 48% ABV I knew I was tasting a dram at its apex. I was particularly impressed by the 15yo because the Sherry was present and obvious but not overpowering. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I can find any of these bottles in my neck of the woods here in the midwest USA (I usually only see the Founder’s Reserve).

Glen Garioch distillery provides a sense of the old days of distilling in Scotland. It’s a small, down-to-earth place quietly making good whisky. I can’t help but pine after a taste of Glen Garioch’s malt before the Suntory acquisition in the early 80s, just to see what the traditional, peaty style would have been like. Maybe some day.

If you’re in northeastern Scotland visiting castle country or exploring the coast, head inland to Oldmeldrum and slake your thirst at Glen Garioch.