Review #771 - Glen Ord (The Good Spirits Company) 10 Year Single Cask - Ralfy.com Celebrating 1,000 Whisky Reviews
To celebrate the milestone of reaching 1,000 video whisky reviews in 2023, Isle of Man-based YouTuber Ralfy did several bespoke bottlings with various distilleries around Scotland. Some examples were a 16 year old Glenlivet, an Ardnamurchan, a 20 year old Springbank, and this 10 year old Glen Ord that we're looking at today; this specific cask was bottled for Ralfy by The Good Spirits Company in Glasgow.
Glen Ord is a little-seen single malt in most of the world; there is a large amount of it that makes its way to various Asian markets via the Singleton brand from Diageo, but otherwise, it's not easy to find this distillate. The distillery is huge, with a capacity close to 12 million litres per annum, and the vast majority of that whisky makes its way into blends. Even via independent bottlers, this distillery isn't easy to find in most places.
This 10 year old single cask was matured in a first fill bourbon barrel, and it was bottled at a high strength of 57.1% ABV; because of those specs, and because of Ralfy's whisky ethos, we're expecting to see plenty of distillate character retained here, so we should have a good chance to get to know the distillery a little bit more.
Glen Ord (The Good Spirits Company) 10 Year Single Cask - Ralfy.com Celebrating 1,000 Whisky Reviews
Scotland/Highland - Single Malt
Price: USD 99 (2025)
Age Statement: 10 Years
Strength: 57.1% ABV
Cask Makeup: First fill ex-bourbon barrel
Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled 2012, bottled September 2023; 206 bottles
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 2 times over 2 months from a sample. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Light and creamy, buttery, with strong malty notes and a bit of sweetness like powdered sugar. Soft honey and lemon citrus notes come next; bright fruits of banana, kiwi, and some white stone fruit, too. There's some weight to the spirit in the background, and with time, we get candle wax and biscuits.
Palate: The mouthfeel is thick - great texture. Malty, lots of honey, a nice combination of sweet and sour with some pears, peaches, and spun sugar. A strong waxy note comes forward, and we also get the softest medicinal smoke note in the background; time brings fizzy and floral notes. It's very oily and a bit warming.
Finish: Honeycomb and barley grain, dry vanilla, little hints of fruit like passionfruit. It's nicely balanced, if a bit simple, and we get oily texture and a hint of lemon in the aftertaste. It's a medium length finish.
Final Note: With the combination of lemon and honey along with some classic malty notes, we almost got a sort of hot toddy flavor in this single malt. It isn't the most complex single cask, but this has good fundamentals, a very solid distillate, and excellent texture and weight. We really enjoyed that waxy note in the nose and palate, too - much more wax than we get on the modern distillate of some other famous waxy distilleries such as Clynelish. This is a good whisky, one we'd be happy to sip.
Value is decent as well, just a bit above average. If we could find this bottle again for this price, we would pick it up.
Our Rating: 7.3 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.27
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
Check out our other recent Highland whisky reviews:
Review #765 - Isle of Raasay Na Sia Single Cask - Peated Chinkapin Cask
Review #758 - Ardnamurchan Mezcal Cask Release (2025)
Review #752 - Cadenhead's Highland Park 'An Orkney' 6 Year
Review #741 - Isle of Harris The Hearach First Fill Oloroso Cask Matured
