Imperial 27 Years Old 1995 Cask #1022 (Silver Seal)

Founded at Carron in 1897 and demolished in 2013, Imperial produced its last spirit in 1998, leaving a finite and shrinking stock of single malt. This single cask was filled in 1995 and bottled by Silver Seal at 27 years old, for its New Vibrations range. Single cask number 1022 yielded 160 bottles, released for France.

The distillery's large stills gave a clean spirit rich in esters, floral and faintly waxy, typical of Speyside before its closure. This bottling matured in an ex-Oloroso sherry butt. Across 27 years, Oloroso is a fully oxidised sherry, so the wood entered the cask loaded with polyphenols and melanoidins, the latter reading as fig and raisin.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 50.4%, without dilution, the ex-Oloroso wood gives dried fruit and a walnut dryness drawn from its tannins, with a leather and cocoa edge from slow oxidation. Recorded bottle notes run to cocoa, stewed fruit, dried fruit, seasoned oak, a sherry note and a yeasty note. Imperial's esters persist underneath as stewed orchard fruit, into a dry, nutty finish.