The Glover 8 Years Old AD (Adelphi)

The Glover is a blended malt that marries Japanese Chichibu with Scottish Ardnamurchan, bottled by the independent house Adelphi and named for Thomas Blake Glover, the Scot who helped open Japan to the wider world in the nineteenth century. Chichibu, founded in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto, brings its fruit led Saitama malt to the marriage.

Both single malts are matured in oak before vatting, the Chichibu side fruity and the Ardnamurchan side carrying a coastal, lightly smoky edge. By 8 years the spirit and oak have integrated, the esters building into orchard and tropical fruit. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla across the blend, with orchard and citrus fruit from the Japanese malt and a faint maritime smoke from the Scottish.

This is the 8 Years Old release. Bottled at 56.4% in a run of 482, natural colour and not chill filtered. A rare crossing of two young craft distilleries from opposite ends of the world. The Glover series has run for several years as one of the first regular marriages of Japanese and Scottish malt. It remains one of the most collected names in modern Japanese whisky.