Special Releases vs Thompson Bros & James Eadie | Various ABV

Glen What?

Maybe “Glen What?” could become a weekly feature for me.

I certainly feel that I’ve been expanding my distillery knowledge into a lot of previously unknown-to-me distilleries - you don’t know what you don’t know is an adage I’ve been known to use.

For this one I’ve fallen down the two related ‘rabbit Glens‘ of Glen Ord and Glendullan. Maybe if this exercise wasn’t so Diageo related I wouldn’t notice it so much, but as part of my abject ignorance around certain aspects of Scotch I will admit I never really understood what was going on with the Diageo brand “The Singleton”.

I was aware of it and I’d always thought the bottles looked inviting. I think the height and breadth always looked bright and it appeared great branding to me, but the liquid is almost always 40%, which took a bit of the shine off.

But then along comes the Diageo Special Edition deep-discount-bonanza, and suddenly you can pick up the Singleton Special Editions for about 50% off the RRP, at a proper strength and without the added caramel colour or chill filtration - it seemed a bit rude not to.

Glen Ord Distillery

Glen Ord is a Highland distillery that sits a bit north of Inverness in an area known as the Black Isle. To add to any confusion, this isn’t an island and it isn’t notably black either. It is an area surrounded by the Beauly Firth, the Moray Firth, and the Cromarty Firth (a Firth being a Scottish term for a long, narrow inlet of the sea, a broad estuary, or a strait) and it apparently gets its name because snow rarely lies there in the winter.

Glen Ord was founded in 1838, and is now one of the largest distilleries in the Highland region following a major expansion that pushed its capacity to nearly 12 million litres per year - using a battery of fourteen stills split between two stillhouses.

The distillery is probably quite unusual now in that it runs its own industrial-scale drum maltings, which produces around 45,000 tonnes annually, feeding Glen Ord and several other Diageo sites. It all sounds impressively, and unapologetically, industrial in nature.

Glendullan Distillery

Glendullan Distillery is another of the Diageo ‘workhorse’ category of distilleries. It was founded in 1897 in Dufftown in Speyside, and through a series of takeovers and mergers eventually became part of Diageo. Production was modernised several times, most notably in 1972 when an entirely new second distillery was built right next door. Both ran in parallel until 1985, when the original site was closed and all production moved to the newer plant.

Today Glendullan produces around 3.7 to 5 million litres of alcohol per year. Of this, it is reckoned that only about 3% of its output becomes single malt, with the remaining 97% being used for blends.

The Singleton - the brand

So that brings us back to exactly what is going on with this Singleton carry-on. At one point I think I was under the impression that the Singleton was a blended malt, which confused me even more with why the word ‘Single’ would be involved. Like many things though, it’s not that difficult if you actually bother to look past the corporate origami.

The key point is that this is a three-distillery brand rather than a single distillery (and utilises a third distillery to make up the global brand presence: Dufftown) - I’m clear I didn’t fully get that. From what I’ve read it was a brand created in 2006 as a method to present single malt to new drinkers using a consistent, brand identity. It uses three distilleries to achieve this, with each originally having a specific global target market but under the same Singleton brand:

Singleton of Glen Ord (Highlands) - mostly aimed at Asian markets.
Singleton of Dufftown (Speyside) - mostly aimed at European Markets
Singleton of Glendullan (Speyside) - mostly aimed at the North America Market.

The idea was for Diageo to have what they termed as a “gateway” brand aimed at new whisky drinkers to grow market share globally without the three versions competing with each other. Today that segmented approach has apparently softened significantly, with all three now sold globally.

There isn’t much sign of any Singleton on Dramface, which suggests there isn’t a lot of love for it in the whisky community. The only review I could see was Tyree’s 2023 review of the 2022 Special Release - Diageo Special Releases 2022 — Dramface.

So, I guess we will find out if even at half-price these releases are worth it, by comparing them to two independent releases from reputable bottlers.

Review 1/4

Singleton of Glen Ord – Autumn Walk, Diageo Special Releases 2024, first-fill bourbon finished in charred Spanish oak with Pyrenean oak ends, 55% ABV
RRP £139, £69 paid, still some availability

This 14-year-old 2024 Diageo Special Release is matured in First-Fill Bourbon and finished in Charred Spanish and Pyrenean oak ends - which frankly sounds like pure gimmickry to me.

The bottle design for the Singleton bottles is pretty striking though, and individual in my opinion, even if the label has the usual random nature of most other Diageo Special Releases. The thin, tall bottle looks great as does the pale blue glass tint to it.

This is non-chill filtered and natural colour – I had to double check on the colour as it came out the bottle as a sort of low-hue Irn-Bru colour.

Score: 7/10

**Very Good Indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*A cracking dram at the price paid*

Nose

Absolutely lovely nose, vanilla waves, toffee and sweet tropical pineapple along with apple and a hint of cinnamon. The complexity fades a bit quicker than you would want though.

Palate

This is a bright and creamy dram on the palate with initial notes of pineapple (which isn’t a note I regularly get), red apples, custard, brown sugar, cinnamon, dark chocolate, honey and more tropical fruits. The fruitiness has a lovely intensity straight away that stays with the dram.
The finish is long and becomes a bit more spicy and mildly drying, even a bit grapefruity towards the end. The mouthfeel is pleasantly thick and a tad oily.

The Dregs

I really cannot say what the charred European Oak cask ends added to this release. Not much, is going to be my guess and I’d love to know where the idea of the finish came from; the distiller or the marketing team. My money is probably on the marketing team having a spreadsheet of brainstormed finishing ideas they are working through from a meeting with too much sugar and too big a whiteboard.

In all honesty though, at £69 I thought this was great. The juice was absolutely singing, but it is probably more of a summer dram than the Autumnal one it’s marked as, but I guess that naming is again maybe down to the Diageo marketing department’s release calendar rather than an actual seasonal assessment. Leaving aside the contrived oddity of the finish and branding, you’re left with a really good, quality dram.

Score: 7/10

Review 2/4

Glen Ord 10yo, Thompson Brothers 2010 release, first-fill bourbon barrel, 48% ABV
RRP £49.95, £45 paid at auction

This was a secondary market purchase which I thought at the time was a bit of a gamble, but £45 for a Thompson Bros did seem a relatively risk-free approach. It was bottled from a first-fill bourbon barrel after 10 years maturation with only 485 bottles produced. Dating from 2020 it’s probably a bit before the Thompson Bros releases gained the juggernaut popularity they now have, but it’s a recent acquisition for me.

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*A solid, bourbon-cask release*

Nose

The sweet, tropical fruitiness is immediately present by the bucketload along with apple notes, cut grass, salt and peach. A very inviting nose on what smells like a juice bomb, but there is a hint of something smoky – but not peaty.

Palate

The juiciness follows through into the taste, but it’s a bit muted at the back end and the juice seems to fall away to a more alcohol type note - a feeling that there is just something slightly missing, maybe a few more years in cask. There is the vanilla you would expect, apple, a touch of peach together with a marzipan note.

Texture wise it is slightly oily, but nicely warming with a medium/long length.

The Dregs

This wasn’t my best Thompson Bros release, but it was a good dram. The palate didn’t quite live up to the nose - which was a shame. Every time I nosed it I was convinced the taste would have opened up and it would be a 7/10. It’s still a good dram though, and at £45 it’s a bit of a bargain, but it just isn’t hitting the mark of the official bottling.

Score: 6/10

Review 3/4

Singleton of Glendullan, 14yo, 2024 Diageo Special Releases - The Silken Gown, Chardonnay de Bourgogne French Oak finish, 48% ABV
RRP £125, £68 paid and still some availability

This is a 14-year-old Diageo Special Release from 2023 which is finished in Chardonnay de Bourgogne French Oak casks. Not being in any way proficient in French, I have of course had to rely on Google to confirm my suspicion that “Chardonnay de Bourgogne” means Chardonnay from Burgundy – it seems a little bit of lazy marketing to me if I’m honest but rephrasing something into French does undoubtedly make it slightly more impressive on a superficial level.

However, Google did also helpfully suggest that this title probably meant the grapes involved were from a cheap(er) part of the region as they would almost certainly have stated if it was a prestigious area such as Meursault.

Red wine cask finishes often aren’t for me, so I was interested to know if this white wine finish is a positive or negative thing.

The label and “Silken Gown” moniker are a bit unnecessary, even random, but maybe they’ve started to run out of animals for the special releases over at Diageo – the name would probably fit a racehorse or a prom dress shop better.

Score: 5/10

**Average.**
***TL;DR***
*Probably better without this finish*

Nose

The nose seems quite complex with a pleasant, sweet apple and toffee. A bit of oak alongside peaches and apricots too. It is a bright, summery nose.

Palate

The palate doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the nose. There’s the obvious vanilla together with apple, melted butter and some pleasant orange-forward citrus.

The taste seems to descend quite quickly, losing its brightness. It drops into more bitter, dull flavours and seems to lose its balance. The finish lets it down.

The mouthfeel is nice with a medium body to it.

A few drops of water did reduce the back-end dullness, but also - maybe predictably - decreased the initial brightness.

The Dregs

It seems like a pun but the first thought I had on the Glendullan was that the flavour was dull. The fresh bourbon-related notes I thought were going to be abundant just weren’t what they should have been, or could have been. In my mind at least I have gone quickly to the conclusion that the white burgundy finish is to blame for this, and it would have been better without the finishing cask.

You are definitely left hoping that the nagging question mark on whether this was a product invented backwards from the label isn’t correct.

Score: 5/10

Review 4/4

Glendullan 12yo, James Eadie, Distilleries of Great Britain & Ireland series, first-fill hogsheads, 2025 release, 52.3% ABV
RRP £125, £68 paid and still some availability

This bottling was distilled in 2013 and bottled in 2025 after 12 years of full maturation in two first fill Bourbon hogsheads. It is one of 665 bottles and part of the James Eadie Distilleries of Great Britain series.

This is the second release from the Distilleries of Great Britain Series that I have had, and I was interested to see if this was as worthwhile as the previous.

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*With time, this one opens up well*

Nose

The nose on this is fairly muted, there is sweet vanilla, marzipan, apple notes, a bit of custard and some white chocolate - but you have to work it considerably to get the notes out of it.

Palate

The liquid is immediately creamy and smooth in the mouth with a degree of weight. There is no immediate hit of flavour, but as it settles it starts to reveal itself and becomes considerably more intense with a real warmth. There is vanilla, stewed orchard fruits (apple and pear) with sweet flaky pastry notes, along with honey and a bit of dried orange.

The finish is long, warm and pleasant. The initial weight hangs around and it is slightly oily.

The Dregs

This was definitely a dram that got better with time as it moved down the bottle. My initial opinion was this was going to be distinctly average but, given a bit of time, it has opened it up and overtaken the official bottling. If anything, this bottle has made me think that my conclusion on the official release being negatively impacted by the white burgundy finish was correct.

Score: 6/10

The Final Dregs

These were four distinct, bourbon-based casks with a couple of random finishes thrown in, but what was an Official vs Indy piece switched into a Glen Ord vs Glendullan piece, with Ord taking the plaudits.

For me the James Eadie and Thompson Bros releases were good, but the Glen Ord Official bottlings sat a clear step above the rest, proving yet again the outright quality of some of the liquid that Diageo pumps out. If we were giving half points or decimals the Thompson Bros would edge in front of the James Eadie, so it may or may not be coincidence that the two Glen Ord’s are the front runners out of these head-to-heads.

Don’t get me wrong, these are all decent whiskies and I’ll look forward to seeing how they unfold as the bottle levels descend merrily towards the base. In all honesty though I’m not especially persuaded to go hunting down another Glendullan any time soon, and these two could potentially end up in the category of forgotten-at-the-back-of-the-shelf.

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. CC

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