Highlander Inn Glen Elgin 24 Year Old Whisky Review!

My first Glen Elgin review! Not a particularly common distillery this, aside from the entry-level 12-year old bottling at least. And even it tends to stay in the shadows of the whisky world.   

Glen Elgin, as you can probably guess from the name, is located near the town of Elgin in Speyside, specifically in the Longmorn area roughly 3.5 hour's drive north of Edinburgh. The distillery was founded in 1898, with production kicking off in 1900, before the distillery was closed after less than six months. It changed hands a few times before winding up under the ownership of DCL and was licensed out to White Horse Distillers, both of which would later wind up being absorbed into the Diageo melting pot. These days the distillery has nine wooden washbacks and six onion-shaped stills with gently sloping lyne arms, all of which feed into traditional worm tub condensers (shown in the above photo) sitting on the outside of the still room wall. Like many of the Diageo distilleries that are not part of the 'Classic Malts' program, the standard 12-year old expression is the only readily available official Glen Elgin bottling, and as usual it's bottled at 43% and is chill filtered and artificially coloured. And as usual, the vast majority of the distillery's production - 1.8-million litres of spirit per year in this case - goes into Diageo's blended whiskies, particularly White Horse. There is no visitor's centre and the distillery is not open to the public. But like many of these lesser known distilleries in Speyside, despite it's disadvantages Glen Elgin Distillery has still gathered a small, quiet-yet-passionate following among whisky aficionados. 

But aside from a few older bottlings that have made their way into Diageo's Special Releases over the years, if you want a higher strength, more naturally presented Glen Elgin you're going to need to turn to the independent bottlers, such as Gordon & MacPhail and Signatory Vintage. The bottling that we're looking at today is from a far smaller and more obscure bottler, but the name will be familiar to anyone who was travelled the whisky trail that winds through Speyside: The Highlander Inn. Tatsuya Minagawa's Highlander Inn is one of Scotland's most well known whisky bars - a whisky destination in it's own right, actually - and is situated in the middle of the town of Craigellachie in Speyside. Tatsuya himself is something of a whisky celebrity, being a Japanese man running a whisky bar & hotel in Scotland, and having worked at the Highlander Inn from 2005-2012 before returning and purchasing the business in 2015. I haven't had the pleasure of visiting the inn myself, since on my (so far) only visit to Speyside I was more interested in cramming as many distilleries as possible into the every available minute! But I'm sure I'll correct that at some point in the future. Since 2005 Highlander Inn have also been releasing independent bottlings under the same name and also the "Oishii Wisukii" ("delicious whisky" in Japanese) label, although these bottlings have only recently and sporadically started making their way to Australia in any real numbers. 

The Highlander Inn bottling that we're looking at today is a single ex-bourbon cask (#13038) Glen Elgin, distilled in December 1995 and bottled in November 2020, a month before it's 25th birthday, at a cask strength of 50.7% ABV. A few Highlander Inn bottlings have been imported to Australia recently by website/seller The Whisky List, with this 24-year old single cask Glen Elgin selling for $350 AUD, which is roughly the going rate for equivalent independent bottlings here. Based on taste & appearance I don't doubt that it is non-chill filtered and naturally coloured, but unfortunately neither point is stated on the label. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd. Let's see how it goes!

Highlander Inn Glen Elgin, 24-year old, 50.7%. Speyside, Scotland.

Distilled 12/1995, matured in a single ex-bourbon cask #13038, bottled 11/2020. 228 bottles. Presumed non-chill filtered and natural colour but not stated.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Quite fresh & malty, and a little solventy in aroma, reminiscent of oily paint. A little sweet pastry, like a waffle cone, but this is a dry whisky overall. A good pinch of black pepper and dried red apple. Slight touch of vanilla ice cream and toasted oak but it's really the spirit that is doing the heavy lifting.

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich & oily, quite fresh again. Slight touch of heat but pleasant. 

Taste: Starts off clean & malty, then turns quite dry, spicy & rich with that oily solventy paint note again. More black pepper, and some charred oak here rather than toasted. A touch of dried red apple again. a little liquorice and a hint of dried strawberry. Touch of dark chocolate too. 

Finish: Long length. Spicy & dry here to start with, some dry oak. That malty side returns alongside more black pepper and a touch of leather. Lovely oily malty spirit to finish. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Very interesting whisky! It seems to alternative between dry & spicy and malty & fresh, and it's definitely very spirit-led despite the age. Don't take that to mean that it's young or immature though, this is the sort of refill cask matured whisky that has had far more "subtractive" maturation rather than overt cask influence, even after spending 24-years in said cask. The cask has mellowed and rounded the spirit rather than adding much at all in terms of wood influence or previous contents. And that's a good thing really, because it shows off the Glen Elgin distillery character with its rich, oily, malty spirit. And that lovely weighty texture. 

This isn't a dirty, meaty or vegetal spirit like some of the more famous Speyside worm tub distilleries produce, but this single cask shows that Glen Elgin needn't be overlooked when it comes to characterful spirit. 

Cheers!