Strathclyde

Strathclyde stands on the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow, in the Gorbals. It was built in the late 1920s by the gin firm Seager Evans, and today it belongs to Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky arm of Pernod Ricard. For a time a small malt distillery called Kinclaith also operated on the same site.

This is a grain distillery, working with continuous column stills rather than pot stills. Its output is made for blended Scotch, mostly from wheat. Well-aged Strathclyde grain tends to be soft and sweet, with notes of vanilla, toffee and cereal that come largely from long years in oak.

Official bottlings are rare. The owners have released some, such as the 12 Year Old from 2006 in the Distillery Reserve Collection, but most bottles come from independent bottlers who buy casks from the trade. Douglas Laing (Old Particular), Hunter Laing (The Clan Denny, The Sovereign), Duncan Taylor (Octave) and That Boutique-y Whisky Company are among the names in our catalogue, along with Master of Malt, James Eadie and Berry Bros. & Rudd.

For buyers, Strathclyde is a good way to taste old whisky at a fair price. Single grain bottlings of 25 years and more, often single casks at a high age, regularly cost less than malts of similar age.