Dumbarton 21 Years Old 2000 Cask #DL 16002 (Old Particular)

The Glasgow bottler Douglas Laing bottled this Dumbarton single grain, a 21 year old, distilled in 2000, from cask DL 16002, bottled at 51.5%, one of 314 bottles. Dumbarton ran continuous column stills by the Clyde for over sixty years before closing in 2002. When it opened it was the largest continuous grain distillery in Scotland, and the first to use stainless steel columns.

Distilled continuously in column stills from a maize and barley mash, giving a clean, mellow grain whisky. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, vanilla and crème brûlée building with age. Into oxidative maturity the grain deepens, oak lactones giving a full coconut and vanillin a rich vanilla over the sweet spirit. Light grain takes oak readily, the ex-Bourbon lending coconut and vanilla over many years. Refill oak lets the clean grain show, the wood adding coconut and a buttery toffee. No more will ever be made, the distillery silent since 2002.

At 51.5%, undiluted, it is deep and sweet. Coconut from the oak lactones and vanilla from vanillin run deep, over butterscotch and a soft oil. Soft toffee and vanilla sit behind the sweetness. A long, buttery finish ends on coconut and vanilla. This is an old single grain from closed Dumbarton.