Glen Flagler

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Founded

1965

Region

Lowland

Status

Closed

Company

ThaiBev

Production type

Blended Malt, Single Malt

Glen Flagler was a short-lived Lowland distillery in Scotland, built by Inver House Distillers between 1964 and 1965 within its Moffat Distilleries complex. At the time Inver House Distillers was the Scotch whisky division of the US drinks giant, Publicker Industries, and Moffat was designed to provide both malt and grain for their blending operations. Glen Flagler was the primary malt, a non-peated spirit, and a second, separate distillery was used to produce peated and heavily peated single malts called Killyloch and Islebrae, respectively.

In the end, Glen Flagler lasted just twenty years and was eventually shut down in 1985, with its buildings demolished in 1988. In its time, its malt was mostly used for the Inver House, MacArthur’s and Pinwinnie blends, however some distillery bottlings of its single malt were also released.

Despite primarily being built to service the needs of Inver House Distillers' blends, a single malt brand from Glen Flagler was introduced fairly quickly with a non-age statement, 5- and 8-year-old all released in the 1970s. Each was labelled as "rare all-malt Scotch" and the 8-year-old was presented with a special red variation of the label and accompanying velvet bag. Interestingly, an alternative design was used in the Italian market, perhaps at the request of the importer, that featured a medieval-style livery more aesthetically similar to the Inver House and Pinwinnie blends of the period.

Following the closure of the distillery, the brand was then relaunched in the 1980s and again there were two different versions, with the Italian market offering being a non-age statement blended malt, bottled by Inver House Distillers subsidiary, Mason & Summers. The more common version had a green label and was available in non-age statement, 8- and 12-year-old expressions. Like the Mason & Summers version, these too were termed "Pure Malt," however unlike that release did not explicitly state whether it was also a blend of a single malt. They were available domestically and in Spain until discontinued in the 1990s.

Certainly a single malt however was the last official release of Glen Flagler, a 29-year-old limited edition distilled in 1973 and bottled in 2003.

ThaiBev

2006-present (name only)

Pacific Spirits

2001-2006 (name only)

Inver House Distillers

1964-2001