One cask, 114 bottles, and a Danish importer who sat and waited for seven years. The spirit ran off the stills on a July day in 2016 in an industrial park in the west of Glasgow, and exactly seven years and ten days later the cask was emptied. Timing like that is rarely an accident.
The Expert's Description
1770 Glasgow 2016/2023 Mac Y Selection 7 Years Old is a Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky matured in a 1st fill ex-bourbon cask and finished in Virgin Oak, bottled at 55.8%. Cask 16/844 was distilled on 17 July 2016 and bottled on 27 July 2023, yielding 114 bottles selected by the Danish importer Mac Y.
Just over three years went by in the first fill bourbon cask, where the spirit picked up vanilla, coconut and a light cereal sweetness. Then came almost four years in new charred American oak. Virgin Oak has never held spirit before, and it works fast and hard: cinnamon, nutmeg, burnt sugar and a drier tannic edge shift the whole profile. Seven years does not sound like much, but in virgin oak seven years can do more than twice that in a refill cask.
Glasgow Distillery uses malted barley and water from Loch Katrine, ferments for more than 72 hours and distils slowly in traditional copper pot stills. The whisky is neither chill filtered nor coloured.
Tasting Notes
Nose
Freshly planed oak and warm cinnamon bun first. Behind that come vanilla, toasted coconut and a hint of yellow fruit, mostly pear with a little pineapple. There is also a drier pencil shaving note that virgin oak casks tend to give.
Palate
Sweet and spicy at once. Burnt sugar, nutmeg and baked apple meet a firm oak tannin that tightens things up mid-palate. At 55.8% it runs warm but the body holds. A few drops of water draw out more honey and calm the wood a little.
Finish
Long and woody, with pepper, toasted oak and a faintly bitter cocoa note. The sweetness lets go slowly.
Specifications
Name: 1770 Glasgow 2016/2023 Mac Y Selection 7 Years Old Virgin Oak Single Malt Scotch Whisky 55.8%
Distillery: Glasgow Distillery
Region/Country: Lowland, Scotland
Type: Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Age: 7 years
ABV: 55.8%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: 1st fill ex-bourbon and finished in Virgin Oak, cask no. 16/844
Non-chill filtered: Yes
Natural colour: Yes
Distilled: 17 July 2016
Bottled: 27 July 2023
Number of bottles: 114
Edition: Mac Y Selection
EAN no.: 5714772002067
Flavour Profile
Spiced · Vanilla · Oaky · Fresh · Cask Strength · Fruity
Investment Potential
Medium. A single cask with only 114 bottles, released into one market, is hard to find again once it has gone. Bottlings from Glasgow Distillery’s early years have also drawn steadily more attention as the distillery has established itself.
Did You Know?
The water for 1770 comes from Loch Katrine in the Trossachs, the same loch that has supplied Glasgow with drinking water since 1859. The city built an aqueduct system running more than 50 kilometres to fight cholera, and today that same water runs through a malt distillery on the western edge of town.
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