Glentauchers 2006

In 1887, Robert Pattison had a great idea. 

He would create the first large-scale blended Scotch and market it to The World; France in particular, which had just bled its stocks of Cognac dry due to the phylloxera crises.  

So wildly successful was this idea, he once had 500 African parrots on the payroll simply to chant, “Buy Pattison’s whisky.”  Scores of distilleries sprang up to serve his company’s burgeoning needs, fueling a Scotch-producing boom.  Glentauchers was one such distillery.   

But then ol’ Bob had a dumb idea. 

He thought, why use expensive single malt Scotch when I can use cheap, abundant whisky made from anything, anywhere? And so he did.  Pattison’s profits soared, along with his ridiculously sumptuous lifestyle, until  a savvy collector caught on to him.  

He was ultimately convicted in 1901 of producing fraudulent Scotch. The conviction crashed the Scotch industry.  Confidence in quality blends waned, single malts were unheard of, and other brown liquors like American bourbon jumped in to take market share.  For many distilleries, The Pattison Crisis was the end of the line.  Between 1901 and 1921, Scotland lost half its distilleries.

The Glentauchers distillery received a subtly different punishment.  It was born of the early Pattison years, when everything in the Scotch industry – quality, quantity, worldwide demand – seemed perfectly within reach.  Yet it grew up in a time of poverty, relegated entirely—and I do mean entirely—for all its years of service to the production of blends.  

I’ll reiterate.  Throughout this great distillery’s almost century and a half of service, there has never once been an official bottling.  NEVER.  And that’s not just wrong, it’s darned inconceivable.

I couldn’t let this injustice stand. It's been bottled once before, a 16 year old released in 2014. This is only the second bottling Wisconsin has ever seen.  

Luckily, Waterford has a few noceur cronies, skilled in the dark art of abreption, on the other side of the pond.  I could explain where, how and why these 2006 year Glentauchers bottles came into my hot little hands, but then you’d have to burn your computer to cover the evidence.  And we don’t want that.  Instead, let’s drink:

Glentauchers 2006 vintages opens with aromas of Marcona almonds, vanilla pod, English toffee, and roasted malt.  The palate is silky, sensuous and rounded – there is not peat here, and the richness of malt is left to express itself through and through: A sweet gingerbread-like nose gives way to honey, caramel, and creamy biscuit flavors on the palate.  The finish washes away with a tide of pear, orange fruits, and heather.  In the end, it’s so easy to drink you will understand, “Of course, blends need this single malt to make them great.”

And that’s when you know you’re hooked.  And you should be hooked.  This is amazing single malt, squirreled away far too long for the blenders.  

I’ll repeat. There has never been an official bottling of Glentauchers. It's been bottled once before, a 16 year old released in 2014. This is only the second bottling Wisconsin has ever seen. We know how good it is, how limited it is, and we've got it for the first time in a decade. Do I need to entice you more?