The Clydeside Distillery 2018 Cask #006F

The Clydeside Distillery opened in 2017 in the restored Pumphouse at the Queen's Dock on the River Clyde, built by Tim Morrison of the Morrison whisky family on the very dock his great grandfather raised in the 1870s. One of the first malt distilleries in Glasgow in over a century, it draws soft water from Loch Katrine. The Vibrant Stills range presents single casks selected for character, and this is cask 006F, finished in Tawny Port wood.

The 2018 spirit, distilled in the distillery's single pair of copper stills, spent most of its seven years in ex-Bourbon oak before a spell in a Tawny Port cask. The port wood lends red fruit, a little plum and a rounded sweetness, working over the vanilla of the bourbon and the fresh fruit of the young spirit. It is bottled at a natural 55 percent.

On the palate the port brings strawberry, redcurrant and a touch of plum, sitting over green apple, vanilla and a soft citrus, with a gently spiced, fruity finish. A characterful port finished single cask from one of Glasgow's revived malt distilleries. The two woods sit in easy balance, neither overwhelming the bright young spirit beneath.