Port Dundas 16 Years Old 2004 Cask #DL 15167 (Douglas Laing)

Bottled by Douglas Laing, this Port Dundas single grain at 16 year old from 2004, drawn from cask DL 15167 and bottled at 48.4%. Some 748 bottles were drawn. Port Dundas, a giant of Lowland grain whisky raised in 1811 at the highest point in Glasgow, was brought to an end in 2010. Diageo moved grain production to the expanded Cameronbridge in Fife, and Glasgow lost its giant.

Port Dundas made its whisky from a mash of wheat and malted barley, produced by continuous distillation in Coffey stills to give a light bodied spirit of real finesse. Maturation in a Pedro Ximenez cask laid a dark, sweet sherry character over the light grain. Well into its second decade, the spirit has softened and the cask sweetness come forward. With little of its own weight to fight, grain takes a cask's character readily.

At 48.4% it is big and oily. The Pedro Ximenez lends raisin, date and treacle, while the lactones add coconut, vanillin from the lignin gives vanilla, and a rich toffee and fudge note, with grain sweetness running underneath. The texture is oily and mouth coating, a hallmark of mature grain. It closes long, sweet and gently woody. This is a stock that can only shrink from here.