Glen Deveron 30 Years Old is the oldest expression in the Royal Burgh Collection, launched in 2013 for the travel retail market. The collection contains some of Macduff’s rarest whiskies, and is named in honour of the Royal Burgh of Banff. Glen Deveron 30 Years Old aged for 30 years in a combination of bourbon and sherry casks. The malt is richly spiced and fruity, starting with a refreshing note of eucalyptus that develops into flavours of toasted cereals, sweet almonds, vanilla and coconut. The finish is complex and characterful. Fun fact: Macduff’s whisky is always labelled as Glen Deveron or The Deveron, which has been the distillery’s official name several times since its founding in 1960. The name Macduff is only used by independent bottlers.

Glen Deveron

Glen Deveron is a single malt scotch whisky produced at the Macduff distillery, located in the fishing port of Macduff. The distillery was built in 1960 by Glasgow brokers, including Brodie Hepburn, to tap into the post-war whisky boom.

The distillery became part of William Lawson, the whisky arm of Martini & Rossi, in 1972, and the Glen Deveron range of single malts was introduced. In 1993, Bacardi purchased Martini, and Macduff became part of the Dewar's portfolio. Today, the Glen Deveron brand is known for its nutty character with a balancing fruitiness.

TASTING NOTES

Nose: Toffees at a mahogany table. Quite sweet with both toffee and honeycomb getting us started, but there’s immediate old wood and polish here – quite sharp, quite pronounced. Orange peels, sour lemons and warmed stewed berried are joined by a delicate touch of grassiness. There’s some nuts and biscuits here, both walking a fine line between sweet and savoury. A sprinkle of pepper adds another nice dimension. Remarkably improved in the bottle – whereas before this was both ultra-shy and in no way displaying characteristics of a 30 year old whisky, the situation has changed dramatically – for the better. Fruit, wood and polish notes are all much more pronounced and provide the type of aromas that you’d expect from a malt of this maturity.

Taste: Quite rich and syrupy (wow, where did that come from?!), but still with just a touch of initial rawness. Oranges, acacia honey and toffee provide sweetness that is tempered by earthy malts, polished wood and quite tart lemons and rhubarb. Cask influence here is much greater and indeed there’s quite a dose of bitter wood here alongside cinnamon, pepper and raw stem ginger. Again, quite a transformation from my previous tasting which found this to be incredibly thin on the arrival with no real prominence of any particular flavours.

Finish: Short to medium, some astringency and with bitter spices.

Macduff Distillery

Macduff distillery was built in 1960 in order to account for increased pots-war demand for blended whisky. Production began in 1963, and by 1967 the number of stills had increased from 2 to 4.

In 1972, William Lawson, the whisky arm of Martini & Rossi, purchase the distillery. Martini was bought by Bacardi in 1993, meaning that Macduff was now under Dewar’s.

Official bottlings of Macduff are released under the pseudonym Glen Deveron or The Deveron, with the name Macduff being reserved for independent bottlings.