Inchgower 23 Years Old 1997 Cask #HL 18208 (Edition Spirits)

Inchgower sits on the Moray Firth coast outside Buckie, a Speyside distillery in name whose malt is salty and savoury in a way the region's usually are not. Edition Spirits selected this single cask, distilled in 1997, from the distillery's United Distillers and early Diageo era, and released it at 23 years old. Single cask HL 18208 gave 264 bottles, released for Europe.

Inchgower's four stills carry steeply angled lyne arms that hold back the heavier, oilier vapours, part of why the malt comes out nutty, waxy and faintly saline. This bottling matured in an Oloroso sherry cask.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 55.6%, without dilution, the Oloroso wood gives dried fruit, melanoidins reading as fig and raisin with tannins adding a walnut dryness. At 23 years the long maturation has deepened the spirit, the oak adding weight to its savoury core. The recorded notes run to cocoa, stewed fruit, dried fruit, fresh orchard fruit, honey and malt sweetness.