Port Dundas 34 Years Old 1973 Cask #128317 (Duncan Taylor)

This is a single grain Port Dundas, chosen and bottled by Duncan Taylor, a 34 year old from 1973, drawn from cask 128317 and bottled at 57.9%. A small release of 256 bottles. Port Dundas was one of Glasgow's two grain distilleries, established in 1811 on the Glasgow canal and closed by Diageo in 2010. It once absorbed its neighbours to stand as the biggest distillery in Scotland.

Port Dundas made its whisky from a wheat mash drawn on Loch Katrine water, run through the distillery's continuous Coffey stills to give a light bodied spirit of real finesse. An Oloroso butt held it, building dried fruit and a walnut depth over the grain. At this great age grain turns intense and polished, the oak deep and the strength easing. High strength off the still means the cask, not the spirit, leads the flavour.

At 57.9% it is big and oily. The melanoidins of the Oloroso give fig, raisin and walnut, while creme brulee from the caramelised hemicellulose, lifted by the wood gives vanilla and a creamy coconut from the oak, with grain sweetness running underneath. Soft orchard fruit sits behind the dessert sweetness. The finish is creamy and slow to fade. This is a finite drop from a vanished Lowland grain distillery.