Port Dundas 21 Years Old 2000 (Campbeltown Whisky Company)

Campbeltown Whisky Company Ltd bottled this Port Dundas grain at 21 year old from 2000 and bottled at 51%. Port Dundas, Scotland's largest distillery in its prime established in 1811 on the Glasgow canal, was wound down by Diageo in 2010. Single grain in its own right was always a sideline to its work for the blenders.

Distilled from a mash of wheat and malted barley and produced by continuous distillation in Coffey stills, it began as the light, sweet spirit grain whisky is known for. Ex-Bourbon oak shaped it, the cask adding sweetness rather than weight. Past twenty years the grain turns deep, oily and softly waxy. A clean spirit and a long sleep let the oak express itself fully.

At a full 51% it is deep and strong. Lignin breakdown lends vanilla and a coconut note from the lactones, with a toffee, dessert like sweetness, with grain sweetness running underneath. A faint waxy note gives it weight on the tongue. It fades slowly on vanilla and oak. This is a collectable remnant of a closed Glasgow giant. Glasgow's grain distilling history lives on only in bottles like this. Mature grain rewards the patient, and this has had time in plenty.