We visited the Glasgow Distillery to find out more about how they relaunched the production of single malt whisky in Glasgow, the products they offer and how they build the business.
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00:00Bringing Single Mall back to Glasgow was a big deal.
00:03My name's Olivia Barnaby and I'm the Marketing Executive for the Glasgow Distillery.
00:07Glasgow Distillery, founded in 2012 by two friends, Mike and Liam.
00:11The name 1770 dates back to the original Glasgow Distillery.
00:16So you wouldn't think it, but there was actually about 30 different distilleries
00:20all within the city lines of Glasgow.
00:22The original Glasgow Distillery being the first to set up
00:26and also the last to close in 1902.
00:29There's no kind of anything in the history books as to why these distilleries closed down.
00:35Probably with all the laws that came in around that time of making whisky,
00:39it became a bit more difficult to do.
00:41So yeah, they shut down one by one with the original being the last to close.
00:45As I say, in 1902, over 100 years passed and there was no new independent single malt distilleries
00:52until we came along.
00:54So we grabbed the name, the Glasgow Distillery, as quickly as we could.
00:57So yeah, set up the company in 2012.
01:00And it kind of took us a while to kind of get things moving from that point.
01:04It was very much an idea and we had the name,
01:08but it was where were we going to be making our whisky,
01:11who was going to be working with us and that sort of thing.
01:14So we had the idea there and it took a couple of years to kind of bring everything together.
01:19So we didn't start making whisky until 2015.
01:24We also produced a gin in 2015.
01:27So this was kind of where Glasgow Distillery became the home.
01:31So we're in Hellington.
01:33It's not the most picturesque of places, but it does the job.
01:36Where we are is one of the largest bonded sites in Europe.
01:40So perfect for making whisky and squeeze some stills into the distillery.
01:45And yeah, here we are.
01:46We produce three different styles of whisky.
01:49And alongside that, we also do gin, vodka, rum and blended whisky as well.
01:55So there's quite a lot of plates spinning at the distillery.
01:58So as I say, we need a really good team to kind of help do that.
02:02But the three different styles that we wanted actually started out with just the one,
02:06which is the double distilled, unpeated, which is known as the original in our signature range.
02:13That was the whisky we started out with in 2015.
02:17In 2016, we started producing our peated single malt.
02:21So double distilled, peated.
02:23And then in 2017, we started producing the triple distilled, unpeated.
02:27So three completely different flavour profiles of whisky.
02:31The original on the bottle, fresh and fruity, it kind of sums it up.
02:37It's quite a robust spirit, quite fruity, quite sweet.
02:42Nice and waxy, nice and oily, alongside those fruity and sweetness flavours that you're getting.
02:48The peated, obviously kind of in the name, quite rich, quite smoky.
02:54When we're doing our cut points of the distillation, we're going quite low for the peated.
03:00So you are getting much waxy, much oilier, kind of richer flavours from the spirit to start off with.
03:09And then the triple distilled is kind of the complete opposite.
03:12It's almost like breakfast, lunch and dinner, you know.
03:15The triple distilled is super light, super clean, but yet still full of character.
03:21Lovely, fruity.
03:23What's the word? Tropical notes.
03:26Still the kind of same fruitiness.
03:28It's more like green fruits, whereas the original is more like red fruits.
03:32And then the peated is very much like barbecue, sweet sauce.
03:37More of like a sweet smoke than a peaty smoke, if that makes sense for our core range.
03:41So three very different single malts.
03:44The reason for that was to have options, you know.
03:49All distilleries have the power of casks.
03:53Using red wine casks, sherry casks, all these kind of wonderful casks that you can use.
04:00We have this extra power of those three different distillates.
04:05So for example, if you have a red wine cask and you're putting the triple distilled,
04:10the unpeated and the peated into that red wine cask,
04:13each spirit is going to bring out different flavours from that one style of cask.
04:18So you've got the same whisky, but three completely different styles, if that makes sense.
04:26It's a red wine matured whisky, but the three completely different flavour profiles,
04:31which means we can fit the bill for three different styles of whisky drinkers.
04:35And that's just the red wine cask.
04:38All the other things that we're doing as well means the list is endless.
04:42So the idea was to have options, really.