Two new products from Loch Lomond Group

The Loch Lomond Group has been working hard for a good few years to increase the market presence of its whisky brands. Both Loch Lomond distillery products and Glen Scotia whisky are celebrating a streak of success, and Loch Lomond whisky has been a partner of The Open, one of the most important golf tournaments in the world, for several years.

The Loch Lomond Group's portfolio includes all brands of whisky produced at the Loch Lomond distillery (m.in. Croftenga, Inchmoan, Inchmurrin) and Glen Scotia. A lesser-known brand also owned by the Loch Lomond Group is Littlemill, a whisky from a now-defunct distillery in the Lowlands. And that's where one of the two market novelties comes from.

In recent days, the following has appeared on the market Littlemill 45yo, the launch of which aims to celebrate 250. anniversary of the distillery's founding, and Glen Scotia - Distillery of the Year 2021, to commemorate the distillery being named Distillery of the Year.

The world of whisky is full of paradoxes. For here is a 45-year-old "oldie", released into the world, as it were, from beyond the grave of the distillery producing it, described as a novelty. Littlemill Distillery, operating in Bowling, about halfway between Glasgow and Dumbarton, on the banks of the River Clyde at its confluence with the Hebridean Sea, did not survive the crisis of the 1980s. In the 1970s. Production stopped there in 1984, the license expired in 1996, the distillery was closed and sold to a developer in 2004. Soon a fire broke out in it, so that today there is no trace of the former Littlemill. And that's a shame, because the distillery, founded in 1772, could effectively claim the title of Scotland's oldest whisky maker. The Littlemill brand and leftover aged whisky became the property of the Loch Lomond group in 2014.

Littlemill 45yo is the oldest edition of whisky from this now-defunct distillery. Distilled on October 4, 1976, it was transferred to American oak bourbon hogshead barrels in 1996. Six months before scheduled bottling, it went into first-fill oloroso sherry hogshead barrels. Only 250 crystal decanters have been prepared, each of which is offered in a decorative box containing the decanter, a miniature containing the same whiskey, and a framed photograph on black glass by world-renowned photographer Stefan Sappert. Each of the kits described costs £9,500, and they will be available soon through specialized stores. Whisky is a liquor with a strength of 41.8% vol.

The second of the aforementioned launches, Glen Scotia - Distillery of the Year 2021, is a beverage made to commemorate the Glen Scotia distillery being named Distillery of the Year 2021 at the Scottish Whisky Awards in November 2021. Glen Scotia - Distillery of the Year 2021 was distilled in 1999, matured for 22 years in first-fill bourbon barrels and bottled as a cask strength, as a beverage with a strength of 54.8% vol. The edition is limited to 500 bottles, each costing £475. Available through specialty stores and by drawing on the distillery's website.

Founded in 1832, Glen Scotia is one of three distilleries currently operating in the Campbeltown region. The other two are Springbank and Glengyle, owned by J&A Mitchell & Company. Glen Scotia was until recently considered one of the smaller Scotch malt whisky producers. In recent years, however, a whole host of smaller, even miniature distilleries have sprung up, allowing Glen Scotia to move up in the rankings to a position far from the bottom. It was one of literally a handful of local distilleries that survived the decommissioning of the coal mine in nearby Dumlemble, which was a real nail in the coffin for the local distilling industry. Struggling with the effects of competition from Speyside, the global crisis, Prohibition in the US and the World War, distilleries struggled to stay alive. Cutting them off from a cheap local fuel source spelled the ultimate end for the vast majority. Glen Scotia was forced to halt production between 1928 and 1930, but this had to do with the owner's financial troubles rather than the situation in world whisky markets.

Glen Scotia, like the aforementioned Littlemill, also suffered from the crisis in the second half of the 20th century. And as with Littlemill, production was also halted here in 1984. Due to changes in ownership and ongoing problems in the whisky market, Glen Scotia was launched and closed twice more, until in 1999 it came under the wing of the Loch Lomond Group. The market debut of Glen Scotia 12yo in 2005 began a period of good fortune for the products of this often underrated Campbeltown distillery. However, the widespread expansion of its products had to wait until 2012. Today, Glen Scotia is available in countless official editions and proposals from independent bottlers.

In the current offer of the House of Whisky Online, which we invite you to take a look at, you can find several editions of Littlemill. Clearly more choice will be available to those of our readers who wish to check for themselves glen Scotia offer. And it will be a pleasure to welcome both of them to our doors.


[24.08.2022 / Photo: Loch Lomond Group]