Scotch whisky
Glen Ord
At a glance, the fertile plains of the Black Mr Hrnn a pretty fine site for a distillery: iiluiMil.mt supplies of barley, some peat from ilic hij'.hcr ground, pure water. The only 1111 pi i-.c is that Glen Ord has always been iilimr here.
Given the fecundity of the area it It pi -i livtly logical that UDV, Glen Ord's ipvviici, has one of its main makings on the niu-, making Glen Ord one of only three distilleries to produce all its own malt on site (the others being Tamdhu and Springbank).
ttecause it's uncommon to look inside a 11 dern commercial makings, this vitally important element in making malt whisky ti'iids to be glossed over. When you walk into ilii- vast majority of distilleries, the tour starts at 11 at the mill and the skill of the people in the m.iltings is forgotten.
Glen Ord, for example, makes the malt for six of UDV's plants, including Talisker, and each of the distilleries needs a slightly different specification of malt-peating level, moisture content, even variety. When you are processing 1,000 tons of barley a week and hitting those tight specifications week in, week out, that's some achievement.
So, is Glen Ord a makings with a distillery attached, a distillery with a makings, or a hybrid of the two? For a few years recently it seemed that the distillery had the upper hand. It was to be UDV's trump card, and it deserved to be. Today it seems to have been quietly dropped, but don't tell that to Barbara Ogilvie, Glen Ord's ambassador.
Barbara is the latest in a long line of women
to run the distillery - at one Mini' I litre were five female maltsters working in the Hour makings - and has an irrepressible lovr nl 'her' malt. The visitor's centre is mure ol ğl community museum than the usual crs.il/ showcase and her tales of illicit distilling ,iml knowledge of modern distilling and nulling are encyclopaedic. The complete p.ii k.igt', just like the distillery
TASTING NOTES
Glen Ord 12-year-old
Freshly turned earth, sultana and cake mix/malt on the nose. Clean and smooth on the palate, with some clootie dumpling, sugared almond and spice balancing the sherry wood
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