Visiting The Glasgow Distillery

PR invite // All thoughts and opinions are, of course, my own. 

I was so happy to get the invitation to visit the Glasgow Distillery as I’ve never been before. This is very much a working distillery, which does not yet feature a shop or visitor centre and I think a lot of people sometimes forget that a distillery is first and foremost a working space and production site for spirits. As Glasgow Distillery grows and expands there might be room for some sort of Visitor Experience at some point in the future, but for now it remains a working distillery. It’s located southwest of central Glasgow in Hillington right next-door to a large warehouse site. Glasgow Distillery produces a few different styles of spirits: their 1770 single malt whisky, the Malt Riot blended whisky, Banditti Club spiced rhum agricole style rum, Makers Gin and G52 Botanical Vodka. The rum isn’t produced on site, but from a distillery in Madeira, but besides from the pot stills they also have a gin still called Annie and a smaller experimental still where they can text various recipes and botanicals.

The 1770 single malt whisky comes in three different spirit styles – their unpeated new make, their triple distilled unpeated and the peated. Most of the time you’ll come across bottlings that contain one of these spirit types but it’s also possible that they could blend them, as they have with one of my favourite whiskies from the distillery, that I’ve written more about further down.

The Distillery

The distillery currently sits all in one space with the two pairs of whisky stills, a gin still and of course also the mash tun and stainless steel wash backs.

They have a fairly small output and good demand of spirit so it will be very interesting to see how they develop moving forwards. They are currently running production 5 days of the week, in two different shifts each day, but there are plans of some expansion for more cask storage and potentially also a visitor experience of some kind at some point in the future. But as they are a working distillery first and foremost they have chosen to put their energy and time into producing the best spirit they can, rather than spend resources elsewhere and limit themselves in other areas. The distillery also has an experimental still in the lab where they can try out smaller batches and more experimental spirits before potentially moving it to a larger scale.

The distillery uses a lot of different cask types for finishing such a red wine, pedro ximinez sherry, ex-peated cask and sweet wines. We had the opportunity to nose their new make which was really fresh and crisp as well as a PX sherry and a Pineau de Charente and I always find it so interesting to get to know the liquid that has seasoned the casks. Both PX and Pineau de Charente are both super tasty on their own too!

The Tasting

The brands of Glasgow Distillery all have their own name that categorises the different styles. You will find the single malt whiskies under 1770 Whisky, the blended malt whisky under Malt Riot, the spiced rum under Banditti Club, the gin under Makar Gin and finally vodka under the name G52 Vodka. The names usually have a reference to Glasgow and its rich spirit history, such as G52 being the postcode for the distillery and Malt Riot from the riots that started in Glasgow before spreading across Scotland.

We tried a variety of products, starting with the core releases from 1770 – The Original, The Triple Distilled and The Peated. Originally my favourite was the Triple Distilled but during this tasting I would say the peated was my favourite. It just has a lovely smoke and nice body to it.

The blended malt Malt Riot in comparison to the 1770 whiskies is a very light and fruity style, so definitely one suitable to those who like a lighter style. We also tried some of the limited releases like a full maturation ex-port cask whisky which probably was my favourite out of the whole line up! It just had a lovely fruitiness to it.

Next up we tried the Banditti Club Rum which is a spiced rhum agricole style rum, meaning it’s made from sugar cane rather than molasses. Rhum Agricole tends to have a grassier character than rum made from molasses, and it was an interesting combination with the spiced influence. I could see this being a very interesting product for cocktails!

We tried both the Fresh Citrus and Rich Coffee G52 Vodkas and they really live up to their character. It’s fascinating to try a vodka with such a nice coffee tone and like Sebastian said I could definitely see how great it would be in a Espresso Martini. Either of these two in a highball I think could be a lovely serve, and perhaps an alternative to those who like a “gin & tonic” style of drink but doesn’t like gin.

Glasgow Distillery Red Wine & Ruby Port Cask Finish

This whisky is one of the best that I’ve tried from Glasgow Distillery and my favourite to date. It’s a blend of both the peated and triple distilled spirit types and finished in ex-red wine and ex-ruby port casks but the flavours were really nicely balanced.

You can see my tasting notes below – or click here to see more on Instagram!

✦ Want to read more about whisky happenings?

✦ Or things going on in Edinburgh?

Check out my Instagram @swedishwhiskygirl or @scandinavianabroad to see even more photos and follow along on future adventures.