The Glover 14 Years Old AD (Adelphi)

The Glover is a blended malt series created by Adelphi, the Scottish independent bottler, as a tribute to Thomas Blake Glover, the Scottish merchant who became one of the most influential foreign residents of Meiji-era Japan. The blend combines malt whisky from three distilleries: Hanyu in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, closed in 2000; Glen Garioch in Aberdeenshire, Scotland; and Longmorn in Speyside, Scotland. This 14 Years Old expression was bottled in 2015 at 44.3% for the Dutch market.

All three components were matured in Ex-Bourbon casks, which provides a shared vanilla, toasted oak and light dried fruit base across what are otherwise stylistically distinct distilleries. Hanyu brings a clean malt and grain-forward note, Glen Garioch its earthy and faintly coastal Highlands character, and Longmorn a richer, Speyside-style fruity sweetness. The blend is transparent about its multinational composition and should be understood as a Japanese-Scottish crossover rather than a purely Japanese whisky.