The picture above says everything you need to know about the House of Hazelwood. The Scotch whisky brand places no value on uniformity. It seems to revel in making collections as diverse in color and flavor as possible, with the eight whiskies from the 2024 release occupying their own space on the spectrum. Like what you taste? Then stock up quickly, because they’re all unrepeatable bottlings.
It’s certainly not the recipe for a multi-billion-dollar business, as House of Hazelwood owners, the Gordon family, know all too well (they’ve already built one in William Grant & Sons). But as the money is made elsewhere, the Gordon family uses the House of Hazelwood to bottle whiskies they love. With hundreds of thousands of casks in its inventory, the House of Hazelwood can pluck extraordinary oddities that would otherwise have no place in the wider portfolio. It then bottles them up and sells them for, relatively speaking, reasonable prices.
[See also: House of Hazelwood: Ultra-rare Whiskies You can Afford to Open]
This latest release is its third collection and builds on that burgeoning reputation. There is a whisky for every palate, from heavy sherry bombs to delicate and floral. There’s even a whisky that, blind-tasted, could pose as a highly aged bourbon. But the only way to get a grip on the depth and breadth of flavor across the collection is to try them all, so that’s what we did.
Charles Gordon Collection
All except one. The Last Trace, a 58-year-old blended malt whisky, was too rare to offer to the media. Almost every drop from two casks went into bottles and even then there was only enough to fill 65 of them. As House of Hazelwood’s rarest release to date, it’s naturally the most expensive at £6,000 ($7,800).
The Last Trace is one of four whiskies making up the Charles Gordon Collection, where House of Hazelwood’s oldest and rarest whiskies reside. That includes the big-hitting A Minute to Midnight (7/10), a 45-year-old sherry bomb full of dried fruits and spice. The name fits, as this is the ultimate late-night, post-dinner whisky for strong palates.
Related
The Garden at Hazelwood (9/10) sits in stark contrast. This delicate blended malt whisky, itself almost half a century old at 47 years, radiates notes of lavender and boiled sweets. It still retains the character of certain Speyside distilleries, although House of Hazelwood seldom discloses the distilleries within a whisky’s make-up.
The Old Ways (8.5/10) completes the prestige end of the collection, an old-style 50-year-old grain whisky from the Girvan distillery. Distilled in 1972, this whisky is from when Girvan’s production was completely manual. Girvan used American red corn to make the whisky, and those taking deliveries say they often found rattlesnake skins when unloading.
The Legacy Collection
The releases that make up the Legacy Collection are more plentiful than the Charles Gordon variety, but still limited. All four have a limited run of under 300 bottles. They are also younger, but strictly in relative terms. The youngest expressions are 33 years old and the oldest at 44 years old, so we remain very much in the realm of highly aged Scotch.
Content from our partners
Out of all eight whiskies in the 2024 collection, The Transatlantic (9/10) sums up House of Hazelwood’s ethos the best. This 33-year-old grain whisky spent its final eight years in virgin American oak casks, which is simply unheard of in Scotch production. At 57.3% ABV, this is a big and bolshy whisky full of vanilla, caramel and oak spice. Blind-tasted, even the most seasoned of whisky drinkers would have a hard time identifying this as a Scotch and not a bourbon.
Equally intriguing, The Silk Traveller (8.5/10) is a grain whisky aged in a refill European cask for 44 years. The liquid is light in color but full of flavor. Far from a sherried whisky, it has instead absorbed an aromatic profile full of herbs and spices that, as the name suggests, conjure memories of Middle Eastern trade routes.
Queen of the Hebrides (7/10) plugs an Islay-shaped gap in the collection, bringing in those classic coastal flavors with a well-balanced 33-year-old whisky. This is a heavily peated blended malt with plenty of maritime notes and ashy smoke. The Hazelwood Highlander (7.5/10) feels like a younger sibling to The Garden of Hazelwood, offering classic Speyside notes of green apple skins and apricots.
The Charles Gordon Collection
The Garden at Hazelwood, 47-year-old blended malt Scotch whisky, 45.8% ABV, 137 bottles, £4,500 ($5,800 approx)
The Last Trace, 58-year-old blended malt Scotch whisky, 43.1% ABV, 65 bottles, £6,000 ($7,800)
A Minute to Midnight, 45-year-old blended Scotch whisky, 58.6% ABV, 154 bottles, £4,000 ($5,200)
The Old Ways, 1972 single grain Scotch whisky, 50.1% ABV, 123 bottles, £3,500 ($4,500)
The Legacy Collection
The Hazelwood Highlander, 33-year-old blended Scotch whisky, 45.8% ABV, 203 bottles, £1,200 ($1,500)
Queen of the Hebrides, 36-year-old Islay blended malt Scotch whisky, 43.4% ABV, 274 bottles, £2,000 ($2,600)
The Silk Traveller, 44-year-old single grain Scotch whisky, 47.6% ABV, 212 bottles, £1,500 ($2,000)
The Transatlantic, 33-year-old blended grain Scotch whisky, 57.3% ABV, 291 bottles, £1,300 ($1,700)
Elite Traveler’s rating system
– 10 A unicorn: Spend whatever it takes
– 8.5–9.5 Top shelf: Impress your fellow whisky geeks
– 7–8: Great: Buy two bottles – one to drink, one to keep
– 5.5–6.5: Very good: Keep it on the shelf – a daily drinker
– 5: Not bad: There’s better out there for the same money
– Below 5 – Disappointing
