Rosebank 30 Year Old Whisky Review!

The legendary Rosebank, the recently rediscovered gem of the Lowlands region. New owners, new releases, and (eventually) new spirit!

Before you ask, yes, this is an expensive bottle of whisky, and despite only being a 2021 release it's largely sold out. At $3,000 AUD on these shores when it was released a couple of years ago, it was already out of many whisky drinkers' reaches. My own included. That was a high price when this whisky was released nearly three years ago, but in the sorry state of affairs that is the current global whisky market, $3,000 for a 30-year old cask strength official bottling from a closed (but re-opening) distillery is actually reasonable. I know that's quite a bitter pill, but it's true. As an example the most recent of Diageo's Port Ellen releases, a 40-year old batch of 1,380 bottles, is priced at $12,500 here in Australia and £8,000 for those in the UK. 

Unlike Port Ellen, Rosebank managed to survive the wholesale slaughter of the early 1980s. In fact it was more highly regarded at the time, but that wasn't enough to save it from the accountants red pen. The doors were closed in June 1993, over 150-years after they'd first opened, when Diageo-predecessor United Distillers elected to close the distillery rather than spending two million pounds on necessary upgrades. Here in 2023 three legendary dead distilleries are being rebuilt and reopened, in fact Diageo's Brora is already up & running after nearly four decades spent gathering dust. Port Ellen is still under Diageo's ownership, but the site required the most work out of this dead distillery trifecta, compounded by its remote location and also the pandemic. Rosebank was slightly better off since the distillery buildings were still standing on the original site in Falkirk roughly 45-minutes north-west of Edinburgh, but the resurrection has been very long-winded, and at the time of writing the distillery is still under construction. Falkirk is now more widely known for it's "Falkirk Wheel" rotating boat lift and the Kelpies sculptures, but to the more devout whisky lovers it's still known as the home of Rosebank. Once the new distillery is finally up & running, it will be again!

Owing to its convenient location on the banks of the Forth & Clyde Canal, the neglected & unloved Rosebank site was sold to the government group that managed the country's waterways. The distillery buildings soon fell into disrepair, and the copper stills & mash tun were partially stolen (cut apart and stolen over a period of days/weeks) by metal thieves in the late 2000s. Diageo still owned the Rosebank brand and sporadically released some of the remaining casks as official bottlings, including a Flora & Fauna bottling that was launched in the late 1990s and concluding with a 21-year old cask strength in 2014. Rosebank was & is quite a unique distillery among the Lowlanders since it used 100% triple distillation combined with worm tub condensers; the former giving a lighter and more floral character, and the latter giving a textural, more robust character. In late 2017 Ian McLeod Distillers managed to purchase both the brand and the remaining stock from Diageo, and also bought the distillery site and buildings from British Waterways. Ian McLeod are behind Glengoyne & Tamdhu distilleries and own independent bottling brands such as Smokehead and Sheep Dip. In late-2019 they set about building a brand new Rosebank Distillery on the original site, while keeping some of the original structure where possible, although building works didn't actually commence until the early 2021. As you'd hope and expect they've installed the same brewing & distillation equipment that the original distillery had, with wooden washbacks, three new copper pot stills built to the original specifications (pictured above), and of course those crucial worm tub condensers. The new stills were installed in mid-2022, with eight new wooden washbacks following a few months later, but the new distillery still hasn't fired into life here in April 2023, over five years after the new owners purchased the distillery. Surely it can't be far off now! 

In the meantime Ian McLeod has been releasing the old stock that was purchased from Diageo, obviously distilled prior to the distillery closure in 1993. So far that's included two large batch releases; a 30-year old in late-2020 followed by a 31-year old in late-2022, plus a travel exclusive 1990 "Vintage Release" and a couple of single cask bottlings. We're looking at the 30-year old bottling in this review, titled "Release One" which was distilled in 1990 and released in late-2022. It's a vatting of 62% refill sherry butts and 38% refill bourbon hogsheads, yielding 4,350 bottles at a cask strength of 48.6% ABV and bottled without chill filtration or added colour. This 30-year old "Release One" bottling is sold out in Australia, but the 31-year old second release is readily available for the same price. Supposedly that second batch will be the last official bottling until the new distillery finally kicks into life, which probably means there'll be a commemorative bottling released when that happens. I've been lucky enough to try a few examples of Rosebank thus far, but this 30-year old will be the oldest to date thanks to a generous fellow whisky geek. Let's see how it goes!

Rosebank 30-year old "Release One", 48.6%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Triple distilled, 62% refill sherry butts, 38% refill bourbon hogsheads. Distilled 1990, bottled 2020. First "global release" (non-single cask) from new owners. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 4,350 bottles. 

Colour: Full gold. 

Nose: Fresh, floral, malty. Sweet thick honey, oat cakes, sweet floral perfume. Lovely rich maltiness, candied lemon & sweet orange rind. Powdered ginger, tinned fruit in syrup. Soft spicy & nutty oak further in. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich & oily. Malty, fruity, no heat at all. 

Taste: More thick sweet honey, rich warm maltiness, lemon peel & orange rind (less sweet here).  Tinned fruit in syrup again - peaches in particular. Those sweet & floral notes are around the edges here, it's more about the malt & citrus on the palate. Not overly complex perhaps, but lovely.

Finish: Medium length. Black pepper fading into powdered ginger. Damp porridge, before the orange rind & lemon peel kick in again. Tinned fruit - peach again, maybe some pear now - and that warm maltiness to finish.

Score: 4 out of 5. Close to a 4.5, though. 

Notes: Another delicious Rosebank. No surprises there! What is surprising though is how fresh & malty this whisky is after 30-years in oak. And that's the beauty of Rosebank, the magic is in the contradictions - triple distillation for a lighter spirit, but worm tub condensers for more weight & texture which help it withstand longer ageing. Refill casks too of course, which is a winning recipe with any Lowlands whisky at an advanced age. No need for any fancy cask finishes or extra wood influence, absolutely nothing needs covering up or enhancing here! I suppose given the choice I'd like a little more length on the finish and maybe a little more complexity as well, but I'm picking nits again. This whisky has certainly been put together very well. Great balance, lovely freshness & clarity. 

I look forward to the "new" Rosebank releases in a decade or so - hopefully the distillery is up & running soon so that milestone is brought a little closer. Thanks to the generous bottle owner for this sample!

Cheers!