Glen Mhor 8 Years Old 100 Proof (G&M)

An 8 year old Glen Mhor from the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, bottled at 57%. Glen Mhor was one of three Inverness distilleries, alongside Glen Albyn and Millburn, all now gone. The writer Neil Gunn, an Inverness exciseman, famously praised Glen Mhor above all.

The spirit was distilled slow in the Inverness stillhouse, the worm tubs lending weight, for a fruity, oily spirit with real body. Decades in ex-Bourbon oak drew out vanilla and a waxy, oily depth. Young and extractive, the cask sheds vanillin (vanilla) and toasted sugars (light caramel) over the full, worm tub spirit. The worm tubs gave a full, oily spirit, less copper contact leaving real weight in the make. It was built in 1892 by John Birnie, a former manager of Glen Albyn, with the Leith blender Charles Mackinlay. Slow oxidation over decades draws the full spirit towards a waxy, oily richness. A 28 year old appeared in Diageo's Rare Malts collection, a glimpse of the lost distillery. No more will ever be made, the distillery silent since 1983.

At its natural 57% it is concentrated. A rich, oily orchard fruit, with a soft vanilla from the oak. It is rich and oily, the full spirit shining through. It finishes full, oily and waxy. This is Glen Mhor, the malt Neil Gunn prized above all.