Glenlossie 1978 27 Year Old First Cask Single Cask #4781 (2005) 70cl

Glenlossie 1978 27 Year Old First Cask Single Cask #4781 (2005) 70cl

A rarely seen older bottling of an also rarely seen Speyside distillery, Glenlossie.

We all love a First Cask bottling as the older taste of these has impressed us to the high heavens. We cannot speak highly enough of this bottling series that we no longer see these days.

About Glenlossie

Glenlossie was founded near Elgin in 1876 by John Duff, a former manager at Glendronach, in partnership with a consortium including Alexander Grigor Allan (who would later have a share in Talisker) and HMS Mackay. The restless, entrepreneurial Duff departed in 1888 to seek his fortune in South Africa and, later, the USA.

In 1962, Glenlossie's license was transferred to the DCL subsidiary Haig (the blend which accounted for almost the entirety of Glenlossie's malt). At the same time the number of stills was increased from four to six. Less than a decade later, in 1971,a sister distillery, Mannochmore, was constructed on Glenlossie's site and a dark grains plant was also added to convert pot ale and draff from the group's distilleries into animal feed. There is also a bonded warehouse on Glenlossie's land containing over 200,000 maturing casks from various Diageo distilleries.

Given that Glenlossie was named as one of only twelve 'top class' malts by blenders in 1974, it is perhaps surprising that the distillery is so little-known. The reason, however, is easy to determine - the blender's high regard means that demand for Glenlossie remains extremely high, and as a result less than 1% of the distillery's output is kept back for single malt. The only official bottling of Glenlossie currently available is the 10 yo Flora & Fauna release available since the 1990s. This range is being gradually phased out, however, and it remains to be seen what plans Diageo have for this distinguished, yet obscure, workhorse.

Independent bottlings of Glenlossie are pretty rare, although Gordon & Macphail have bottled a handful of expressions recently.

46% ABV

70cl