In terms of whisky backstory “The Glover” is like a Marvel superhero. Where to begin? I suppose we should begin with the legend himself Thomas Blake Glover aka the Scottish Samurai. Not really sure who coined that name for him but it is both pretty awesome and crass. Hollywood will probably jump on this story soon.

Mr. Glover was born in Aberdeenshire to an English coastguard and a Scottish mother in 1838. So I guess he’s only half Scottish? He’s credited with playing a vital role in the industrialization of Japan. He brought the first railway locomotive to Japan, which was name the Iron Duke (again with the awesome monikers). He took part in commissioning one of the first Japanese warships, the Ryujo Maru, which was built in Aberdeen. And he developed Japan’s first coal mine. Pretty impressive, especially since this was during a time when foreigners were not looked well upon in Japan.

So what better way to pay homage to such a man than to create a whisky that is the marriage of Scottish and Japanese whiskies? So that’s what Adelphi has done! They’ve made two blended malt whiskies which have, confusingly, both been named “The Glover”. The more expensive of the two is a 22 year old which is a vatting of just 3 casks from Hanyu, Longmorn, and Glen Garioch and resulted in 390 bottles. Clocking in at just over £1000 this expression was just a bit out of our price range. No doubt the high cost is mainly due to the inclusion of the highly sought after Hanyu whisky.

The Glover 14 year old, however, was priced at a much more affordable £100. With only 1500 bottles produced it’s quite a rare treat. We were able to acquire a sample from the good folks at Whisky Auctioneer. The exact composition of the 14 year old was not released, but it contains both Scottish and Japanese whiskies.

The 14 and 22 year old were released at the same time and lauded as the first Scottish-Japanese whisky ever launched. However, this is not quite true. Nikka uses the whisky from Ben Nevis Distillery (Nikka owned) in many of their blends and blended malts, especially the Nikka Black 8 year old. They don’t really advertise this however so it never got the special attention it deserved. Regardless, the Glover is a unique and rare whisky and has deservedly received quite a bit of attention in the whisky industry.

Bottler: Adelphi

Type: Blended Malt (Scotch and Japanese malts)

Age: 14 Years Old

Cask: Unknown

ABV: 44.3%

Price: £95.00 at the Master of Malt

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