Glen Mhor 50 Years Old 1965 Cask #3934 (Signatory)

The Pitlochry bottler Signatory Vintage bottled this Glen Mhor, a 50 year old, distilled in 1965, from cask 3934, bottled at 47.1%, one of 353 bottles. Glen Mhor, founded in 1892, was one of Inverness's three vanished distilleries. The writer Neil Gunn, an Inverness exciseman, famously praised Glen Mhor above all.

This was made on Loch Ness water and condensed in the cast iron worm tubs, the worm tubs lending a full, oily weight. A sherry butt held it, the wood lending raisin and walnut over the rich body. Ethereal and fragile, decades draw the oily malt to a waxy, honeyed delicacy of sotolon, dried fruit and old oak. The worm tubs are the key to Glen Mhor's body, holding the heavier, oily notes in the spirit. Years in oak round the spirit, the orchard fruit deepening to dried fruit and beeswax. Slow oxidation over decades draws the full spirit towards a waxy, oily richness. With Glen Mhor gone, every bottle draws on a finite, dwindling stock.

At a hearty 47.1% it carries real weight. Baked apple, wax and a gentle spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. It is rich and oily, the full spirit shining through. The close is long, fruit over an oily weight. This is a rare Highland single malt from a demolished distillery.