Glen Mhor 50 Years Old 1973 Cask #85026801 (G&M)

This Glen Mhor was bottled by the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, a 50 year old, distilled in 1973, from cask 85026801, bottled at 47.2%, one of 170 bottles. Glen Mhor was the fuller, oilier of the lost Inverness distilleries. Mackinlay and Birnie went on to buy the neighbouring Glen Albyn in 1920.

The spirit was distilled in a single pair and a half of stills and cooled in worm tubs, for a rich, oily make of orchard fruit and a waxy weight. A sherry cask wrapped the full spirit in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Ethereal and fragile, decades draw the oily malt to a waxy, honeyed delicacy of sotolon, dried fruit and old oak. The cool Inverness air gave a slow, even maturation in the old warehouses. Active wood frames the fruit without smothering the full, oily spirit. The slow loss of the angel's share concentrates the oily, waxy core over the decades. Closed in 1983 and demolished in 1986, its profile is fixed for good.

At cask strength 47.2% it is full bodied. Baked apple, wax and a gentle spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The texture is full and oily, the fruit lifted by vanilla. Apple, wax and a soft oak see out the finish. This is a rare Highland single malt from a demolished distillery.