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Glenugie

No: 99
Producer: Whitbread(Long John)
Region: Highlands
District: Eastern Highlands
Map reference NK 13 42 ; Latitude 57 28° N, Longitude 1 51° W
Founded 1830s ; Operating Status: closed (1983); converted

This malt has never been "officially" bottled as a single though it is still available from merchants. The supply is finite, since the distillery closed in 1982 and the equipment has been dismantled.

The river Ugie flows into the sea at the port and boat-building town of Peterhead and the distillery site is nearby close to the vestiges of an old fishing village. There was first a distillery on the site in the 1830s but this was converted into a brewery and the present buildings date from 1875. The distillery was last operated by the Whitbread brewing company at that time under its Long John subsidiary. The distillery buildings still stand but have been sold to companies outside the drinks industry.
© Michael Jackson 1994


Distillery rating: 2*

Peterhead, Aberdeenshire


tastings

SMWS bottling 99.4, 15yo, 128.8 deg (64.4%) proof, distilled 12/77:
Sweet Spicy Nose:
Deep red-gold from oloroso sherry wood. The nose is sweet, spicy and heavily sherried. With water it exhibits fruit and flowers and unusually, in such whisky, peat smoke. The taste is as you would expect from such a cask; a well balanced mix of honey, butter, and the sherry itself.
SF mar 3

SMWS bottling 99.3
"mild despite the high proof"
The proof is certainly very high at 127.2, and consequently I found it almost impossible to get a really satisfactory whisky:water ratio. All my experiments either had too little water, in which case the alcohol singed my tastebuds and also overpowered the taste of the whisky; or too much water, in which case the mix was, well, watery. I finished the bottle easily enough and I certainly didn't dislike it but I kept feeling as though I should be able to get a better mix. Very frustrating. Fortunately I don't think it's typical: it seems to be by far the highest proof of any selection in the current list; and from my limited experience it also seems to be unusually light for a cask-strength Highland whisky. [rs]

Hear "Glenugie" pronounced in AU or WAV format
Search Dr. Do'g's index for the history of Glenugie
There just might be some news about Glenugie in The "Scotsman" newspaper