Dunglass
SCOTCH SINGLE MALT WHISKIES > D
DUNGLASS
LOWLAND SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
As a short-lived, experimental malt produced at a ‘lost’ distillery, Dunglass’ rarity is assured. It was never officially bottled and the vast majority of what was distilled went into blends.
Dunglass was one of two peated variants trialled at the Littlemill distillery during the late 1960s, the other being the more heavily peated Dumbuck. Rarely released by independent bottlers, it is now highly prized by collectors.
DUNGLASS
aged 37 years
45,8 %
SIGNATORY VINTAGE
RARE RESERVE
Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Distilled on 31/5/1967
Matured in an Oak Hogshead
Cask Number 2409
Numbered Bottles
500 ml Bottles
325 Bottles
Natural Colour
In Box with Littlemill 36 year old
500 ml Bottle
Signatory Vintage
Scotch Whisky Co, Ltd, Edinburgh
Rarer still are bottlings of Dunglass. This was a different style of whisky produced from the Littlemill stills. It was a medium, mildly peated single malt designed to add body to a blended whisky, whereas Littlemill was more delicate and sweeter in style.
Distillation of Dunglass was discontinued in the early 1970s; the record is vague on how many years it was actually produced.
This Rare Reserve set, combining Littlemill and Dunglass from 1967, both aged for more than 36 years is therefore quite unique and only 325 sets have been produced.
Dunglass was produced briefly in the late 1960s at Littlemill, the Lowlands distillery converted from a brewery in 1772, which endured a difficult early history under multiple owners.
By the 1960s, Littlemill was owned by serial innovator Duncan Thomas and Chicago-based Barton Brands – the latter of whom provided a cash injection that allowed the construction of the Loch Lomond distillery to boost production.
Thomas’s innovations at Littlemill had already made it a versatile plant, and in the late 1960s this was taken further with the experimental production of peated spirit to supplement Littlemill’s trademark floral style.
Distillation of the two variants – lightly peated, ‘heavy and slow-maturing’ Dunglass, including spirit taken from spirit and wash stills, and heavily peated Dumbuck – was short-lived, and Thomas was bought out by Barton Brands shortly afterwards.
Littlemill eventually ceased production in 1992; a fire destroyed most of the remaining buildings in 2004.
One of Scotland's oldest distilleries, Littlemill produced three different brands.
LITTLEMILL DISTILLERY
LOWLAND SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
Littlemill was always a somewhat frustrating single malt. It was apparently relegated to the status of Third Class malt by DCL in the 1950s and bottlings, both official and independent, have swung wildly from the immature (sadly, mostly the own bottlings) to truly excellent (independent bottlings) where the distillery’s soft centred sweetness expresses itself fully. It was triple distilled until 1929.
Three different brands, Littlemill, Dunglass, and Dumbuck, were produced in the latter years.
One of Scotland’s oldest distilleries, there is a possibility that whisky was being made at the Littlemill site as early as 1772. What is certainly clear is that none of its owners had any success. There were nine of them between 1772 and the arrival of the Hay family in 1857 when some stability ensued.
Its somewhat chequered history was a little surprising given its location in the village of Bowling, where the Forth & Clyde Canal meets the river Clyde. These good transport links would, you might imagine, have given Littlemill a commercial advantage.
The Hays remained in charge, expanding and improving the distillery before selling to near neighbour, grain producer Yoker Distillery Co. A further period of instability followed, with blenders Charles Mackinlay and J&G Thompson owning it briefly before, in 1931, it became the possession of the first of a succession of American owners.
The first of these was Duncan Thomas, one of the forgotten innovators of Scotch whisky. He stopped triple distillation and installed new hybrid stills with pot still bodies and rectifying heads, allowing a number of different characters to be produced.
In 1959, the Chicago-based Barton Brands took a stake in Thomas’ Littlemill Distillery Co. The injection of capital allowed the firm to build the Loch Lomond distillery – also a forgotten innovator within Scotch whisky – in 1965, thereby easing pressure on supply.
Barton Brands then bought out Thomas in 1971, but continued to try new things such as three different expressions: Littlemill itself, a lightly-peated variant, Dunglass, and a heavily-peated one, Dumbuck. After a brief time in mothballs between 1984 and 1989, the distillery ran until 1992 when what had been Barton’s Scottish arm, now Gibson International, went bankrupt.
Littlemill was bought by Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Ltd, (which in one of those weird twists of fate had bought Loch Lomond in 1986) but never redistilled. The stills were taken to Loch Lomond.
Its new owner contemplated running Littlemill as a museum, but in 1996 it was closed down and soon after it had been sold to a developer in 2004, it caught on fire.
Loch Lomond Group
2014 - present (brand only)
CURRENT OWNER
The Littlemill Distillery Company
PREVIOUS OWNERS
Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse
1994 - 2014
Gibson International
1987 - 1994
Barton Brands
1971 - 1987
Duncan G Thomas
1931 - 1971
J&G Thompson
1923 - 1931
(joint with Charles Mackinlay)
Charles Mackinlay
1923 - 1931
(joint with J&G Thompson)
Littlemill Distillery Co
1918 - 1923
Yoker Distillery Co
1913 - 1918
William Hay & Co
1857 - 1913
William Hunter
1853 - 1857
John McAlpine, Harvey & Co
1852 - 1853
McCulloch & McAlpine
1846 - 1852
Duncan McCulloch
1839 - 1846
Jane McGregor
1825 - 1839
Peter McGregor
1821 - 1825
Matthew Clark & Co
1817 - 1821