Pour Tony: Glenrothes 51 Year Old Whisky

The Glenrothes 51

As a gentleman of relatively refined tastes, I love a good Scotch single malt. And as a former boy who tries to keep in touch with his inner child, I love to smash things to bits. Give full credit to the Speyside-based Glenrothes distillery for figuring out how to indulge both these parts of my personality with one very expensive, rather silly, and, in all honesty, irresistible new package. 

A Whisky Inspired By Orchids

The 51, as it’s known, is the oldest whisky ever released by the Glenrothes. Limited to 100 bottles worldwide, it was inspired by wild orchids that were found growing on the distillery grounds, according to brand director Kerr Arthur. “When Laura [master whisky maker Laura Rampling] was creating the whisky, she wanted to reflect the orchid…. If you’re going to survive winters in Scotland, you’ve got to have strength in there. But there’s a beautiful fragility to it, and there’s a beautiful fragrance as well.” The Glenrothes is one of those rare whiskies that can age for a ridiculously long time without the oak overwhelming the character of the original distillate; rather than becoming overly spicy and astringent, its flavors become more concentrated and intense, even the floral notes that are typically the first to disappear.

Not Quite A Single Cask

The 51 comes from two casks, among the oldest aging at the Glenrothes, that formerly held Oloroso sherry. “Laura selected a single cask, and it's got less wood influence, so it's quite unique,” Arthur says. “All the flowers, floral fragrance, perfumery, the kind of notes that you'd expect. But what she then took was a second cask — not the entire cask, but some of it — and she put it together with the single cask, and it gives it more of the strength.”

50-plus year old single malts have become less of a rarity in recent years. Lesser-known distilleries like Glenturret and Benromach have, in the last few years, released whiskies that have spent a half century in oak. Glen Grant put out a 65 and a 70 year old. The Macallan seems to put out a new bottling laid down in the 1970s and earlier every few weeks. A couple of years ago I tasted an 80-year-old Glenlivet. And this steady trickle of unicorn single malts is coming at a fraught time for rare Scotch whiskies in general, with sales declining between October 2023 and September 2024 by more than 15% in volume and value. And they report the decline is, if anything, accelerating.

Break Jesmonite, Drink Whisky

The 51 column

So what makes The 51 stand out from the pack? Well, it’s the only whisky I know of that requires smashing stuff with a hammer (provided with the whisky!) to get at the bottle. The stuff in question is a solid Jesmonite column (Jesmonite being a durable and eco-friendly material) encased in protective rings that, when removed, say things like, “We invite you to seek;” “We invite you to discover;” and finally, “We invite you to commit.” And by commit, they mean break the Jesmonite to get at the whisky within. My inner destruction-happy kid is thrilled just to write these words. My inner artsy sophisticate is also thrilled by what you do with the shards of obliterated Jesmonite — send it to the Glenrothes, where a Kintsugi artist will practice the ancient art of mending the fragments back into their original shape, using liquid gold to make it stronger and, of course, more beautiful than before. The vase is perfect for holding orchids, to continue the theme. 

So How Does It Taste?

A sad empty base

I did not get to smash one of the Jesmonite columns holding the precious cargo, alas, nor did I get to taste the liquid within — with fewer than 100 bottles to go around (as some have already been sold), there’s not a lot to go around. I did, however, get to speak with Jonny Fowle, the global head of whisky at Sotheby’s, who is one of a mere handful of “civilians” outside the brand who got to have a taste of The 51 without spending £37,000, or somewhere north of $45,000, to acquire a bottle. He had preconceptions about a sherry cask-matured whisky this old, thinking he’d experience “heavy sherry, lots of dried fruit, that kind of dustiness, woodiness, the spice, maybe some astringency in the palate.” But when he tasted it, “it was so different from what I expected. Super, super vibrant. 

“The first thing that jumps out is this fresh, energetic fruitiness,” Fowle notes. “And then as you delve in, there's vanilla, and there's a bit of wood, and then on the palate, I noticed that's where the age really becomes apparent, because the woodiness is much more present…. And that was the thing that really struck me. That’s the most amazing thing about it, because it noses like a younger whisky, and you expect, you know, with this intensity of fruit, it's going to dissipate really quickly, but actually you get this extremely long lasting finish.”

The £37,000 Question: Is It Worth The Coin?

Those tasting notes from Jonny Fowle will likely prove informative to more than one purchaser of The Glenrothes 51, since whisky this rare is seen as investment as much as it is something to, you know, drink. Which means that someone, and more likely several someones, will own a bottle without ever tasting it. But, depending on how much money you have, the desire to wait for The 51’s resale value to increase may pale next to the desire to take a hammer, break some Jesmonite, and drink some incredibly rare and delicious whisky as a reward for your efforts.