Pioneers! O Pioneers – Glenfiddich Rich Oak Single Malt

By Martin Pilkington

Some snobby malt drinkers look down on Glenfiddich for its success, ignoring the fact people repurchase because they enjoy it. And we malt-lovers should never forget our debt to the distillery for its pioneering work in the sixties breathing life into the whole single malt concept. Rich Oak is another laudable innovation.
Text continues below image

Glenfiddich is currently going big on pioneering, doubtless in part rebranding their range to seek new markets and market segments, but also perhaps with a growing awareness that this is what has made them winners over the years, and what we all need to survive coming challenges – their Inspiring Pioneers report makes fascinating reading.

I was lucky enough recently to attend an event at the distillery highlighting the work of pioneers in many fields today – think printing on water, or the brilliance of digital artist Marek Bereza – that also for me showed we are all standing on the shoulders of giants. Thus Glenfiddich Malt Master Brian Kinsman relies on his predecessors some of whose spirit is in the Rich Oak, while it is his and his colleagues’ innovation that has created the end product.

Rich Oak is intended to harness the almost mystical powers of wood on whisky, finishing the 14-year-old malt in both new American oak and new Spanish oak. The two sources do impart different characteristics, the most obvious the bold vanilla of the New World and the citrus – orange, mandarin – of the Old. I think it succeeds, crafting a fine round scotch, and what is more it does this while retaining the essence of the distillery, for me pear sweetened with honey.

Food recommendations on wine bottles were an Australian innovation three decades or so back. Maybe Glenfiddich should in their pioneer spirit launch them for scotch: I’d suggest this is a friendly malt rather than one to be drunk alone; it goes well with fruity cakes, partners walnuts and cobnuts and even stands up to coffee – with, not please in – not all pioneering moves are laudable.