One of the ironies of having the world’s biggest selling single malt in your portfolio is that your flagship product is everywhere, and people sometimes don’t see the innovative things you do on the side. Such is the burden of William Grant & Sons and their favourite child, Glenfiddich. Whilst the ubiquitous 12yo sits proudly in nearly every bottle shop around the world, you sometimes overlook the numerous variations and other expressions of Glenfiddich that have been flying out of the warehouse at increasingly close intervals over the last few years. For, if there is one word that you can associate with William Grant & Sons, the word is “pioneering”. And, in a delicious twist of irony, they’ve turned that on its head with the release of a new expression that is, in fact, very much a look back to the past: Glenfiddich The Original.
Glenfiddich did not invent single malt bottlings. No, there were bottles of single malt being bought, sold, and traded on this planet long before 1963. However, it was in 1963 that William Grant & Sons decided to do something radically different and market their single malt as a single malt. They were the first distillery to stand up and say, “We think our whisky is pretty good and doesn’t need to be blended with other whiskies. We think you’ll like it straight up, as is.” Okay, we’re projecting and paraphrasing there, but the message is the same, because that’s more-or-less what happened in 1963 when WG&S launched their Glenfiddich Straight Malt. The term straight was used because, in the context of a time when virtually all commercially-available whisky was blended, straight was an appropriate and understood term. Later bottlings of Glenfiddich would use the term Pure Malt, pretty much right up until the term fell foul of the Scotch Whisky Association in 2009.
Glenfiddich had been selling their whisky on a very small scale as a 5yo single malt in the local Speyside district and, according to Peter Grant Gordon (one of the family members and Directors of WG&S), the seeds for widely releasing a commercially marketed Glenfiddich were sown in the late 1950’s. When the Glenfiddich Straight Malt was released in 1963, it was reportedly made from a base of 8yo whisky, vatted together with some 12yo and 13yo casks. Ironically, given the sentiment towards the category these days, Glenfiddich’s Straight Malt was also the world’s first commercial NAS release! However, it wasn’t long before the age statement of 8 years old started to appear on the label – an age statement that stayed in place up until the mid-2000’s when the standard bottling was upgraded to a 12yo.
All of this suddenly has context again, with the release of Glenfiddich Original – a limited release that has been inspired by the original Straight Malt whisky from 1963. Brian Kinsman, Glenfiddich’s Master Blender, was charged with the task of concocting a recipe from amongst the current cask inventory to re-create a whisky in the style of the 1963 release. To assist with this pursuit, Kinsman had access to the notes and archives of Hamish Robertson, the Master Blender at Glenfiddich who was behind the original 1963 release, as well as some original samples. I note that no one is using the word replica in this project, and whilst I’m sure creating a replica is certainly the aim and intention, the raw word itself does tend to carry negative connotations in the whisky community after some rather unwholesome business involving…er…one of Glenfiddich’s other Speyside neighbours.
The Australian launch of the Glenfiddich Original was held on June 3rd at the Lord Dudley Hotel in Paddington, Sydney. It’s no secret that WG&S remains a family-owned company, and to tie in with this theme, the launch highlighted three unique families in Sydney who share a common thread with William Grant, i.e. one man starting a business, and then seeing the business foster and grow, subsequently involving the second and third generation of offspring. Through a series of quite poignant and moving videos, we were introduced to the Carayannis family, who still run the Rosebery Service Station after 40 years; the Couche family, who have run the Lord Dudley Hotel for 36 years; and the Foti family who, for seven generations over two centuries, still run the same fireworks business.
Both Laura Hay & Richard Blanchard, WG&S’s Whisky Specialists in Australia, were on hand to share the Glenfiddich story. Laura told the story of William Grant and his epic effort to get the distillery off the ground in 1887, whilst Richard shared a bit about the launch of the Glenfiddich Straight Malt in 1963, and the basis of the new Original release.
And so what is this whisky like to taste? Well, as you’d hope and expect, it is signature Glenfiddich. The 12yo was served earlier in the evening as a benchmark, and when the Original was served, it delivered those very familiar notes of pears, pear drops, very gentle citrus, and a light, floral grassiness. I found a very light smokiness on the nose, which added an intriguing dimension to the experience. It’s a light whisky, very much aperitif style, and comes across almost as a more genteel version of the 12yo. I’ve written numerous articles on Glenfiddich over the years, and I continually make the point that you don’t become the biggest selling single malt Scotch in the world by making challenging, abrasive whiskies. When they took on the world in 1963, they clearly needed a whisky that was smooth, approachable, light and delicate, yet with complexity and flavour. If the Original is a reasonable representation of what the actual Straight Malt tasted like in 1963, I can understand why the whisky went around the world so quickly!
For those in Sydney who want to check this out, Glenfiddich is running a pop-up bar at the Lord Dudley hotel from Wednesday 3 June to Sunday 7 June. For the duration of the pop-up bar, they’ll be running bespoke tastings of the new whisky every hour from 6pm – 9pm on Wednesday to Friday and 12pm – 6pm on Saturday and Sunday. If you’d like to get along to this, you can purchase tickets to attend these tastings from here. Proceeds will be donated to Soldier On, a charity supporting emotionally and physically wounded service men and women.
The Glenfiddich Original is a limited edition, with just 6,000 bottles released in Australia. All bottles have already been pre-allocated to premium retailers, outlets, and on-premise venues, so it won’t stick around for long. RRP is $100.
Cheers,
AD
PS…you might like our other articles on Glenfiddich and its whiskies:
Glenfiddich vs Glenlivet – who will win the heavyweight title bout?
The three stages of your attitude to Glenfiddich: Like – Hate – Love
