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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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January 12, 2026 |
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WF's Quirky Little Duos,
today Hillside vs sparring partner |
You may have noticed that we've been sampling quite a few closed distilleries lately, and we're absolutely delighted about it, if only as humble archivists of Scottish styles and flavours. |
This time, it's Glenesk's turn, a distillery whose name was changed to Hillside around the mid-1960s, before reverting to Glenesk in 1980, only to be closed in 1985 and then almost completely demolished in the 1990s. So it’s indeed a Hillside, not a Glenesk, that we’ll be tasting today, as it was distilled in 1969. Led Zeppelin again, perhaps. After that, we’ll be looking for a little sparring partner from the same region, though there aren’t all that many to choose from. No, no Lochside currently in the stash.
'Vat 69. It looks like alcohol, it tastes like alcohol; in fact, it is alcohol.' French press advert for Vat 69, whose base malt at the time was Glenesk/Hillside, 1980s.
For once, a brand that tells you nothing but the truth! |
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Hillside (Glenesk) 25 yo 1969/1995 (61.9%, OB, Rare Malts) 
We’ve only ever tasted around twenty Glenesk/Hillsides and would be hard pressed to summarise the style. But that said, another Rare Malt, the 1971/1997, had struck us as rather rough when we tried it, though that was twenty years ago (WF 82). Worth noting, Glenesk did exist as an official bottling back in the 1970s, under the William Sanderson & Son (DCL) banner. But we can't say it had left much of an impression on us in… 2004 (WF 60), we found it ‘weak and short’. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: straight off, it’s that grassy side again, green apple and paraffin, very typical of this series when you’re faced with examples drawn from what seems to be umpteenth-fill wood, as seems to be the case here. That’s good news, we like that—this way, you really connect with the distillate. Bit by bit, other rather shy fruits start peeking through, such as wee pears, quinces and medlars, then comes porridge, muesli and even soluble aspirin, you almost feel this baby was distilled yesterday. No OBE at all so far. With water: doesn’t move an inch, it just becomes more expressive on the nose, and as a result quite splendid. Very impressive, not unlike some old Rosebanks. Mouth (neat): immense arrival, hyper-lemony, yet wrapped in a chalky and faintly honeyed coat. It sends a lovely shiver down your spine, especially at this strength, but we’re into that sort of thing, aren’t we. With water: splendidly lemony, extremely zesty, very mineral too, then gradually unfolding on small orchard fruits, with utterly mad elegance. Finish: very long and hardly changes. Slightly sharp, superb, with a surprising note of blueberry popping up right at the end. Comments: the best Hillside/Glenesk we've ever come across, though you'll tell me that wasn’t difficult. I believe this is one worth actively tracking down; the bottle we’re tasting is No. 5021, so it must’ve come from a fairly large batch.
SGP:561 – 91 points. |
As we don’t have another Glenesk to hand, we’ll quickly look for another malt from the area nearby Montrose. A Glencadam, for instance, as the distillery is less than half an hour away... But we’ll keep this brief, as the comparison doesn’t make a huge amount of sense, we agree. |
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Glencadam 13 yo 2012/2025 (53%, Decadent Drinks, Decadent Drams, refill barrel, 282 bottles) 
Judging by the label, this ought to be a rather diabolical whisky. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: this is mad, believe it or not, but it’s remarkably close to older malts such as, say the tougher North Port (we've tried some a few weeks back), with cider, soft ale, bruised apples, quince, biscuit dough, sourdough… Truly, it’s mad. With water: an old bouquet of flowers, paraffin wax… Mouth (neat): this time it’s livelier, more herbaceous, more bitter too… It’s quite a full-bodied malt, but not terribly, um, ‘sexy’. With water: the pears take charge and never let go. Bonkers. Finish: fairly long, wildly rustic at its peak, I’d say you’d need to be a young Scot from the wilder reaches to genuinely appreciate this kind of rather uncivilised malt. Comments: right, we understand, don’t we. It sure gets the job done, but the old Hillside would rather soundly trounce it all the same.
SGP: 451 - 84 points. |
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