Glendullan 8 Years Old (MoM)

Master of Malt bottled this Glendullan, an 8 year old, at 58.3%, one of 97 bottles. Glendullan is a Speyside single malt, one of the larger malt distilleries in the Diageo group. Its water rises at the Goats Well spring in the Conval Hills above the distillery. Most of its make has always gone to blends, above all Diageo's Old Parr. It runs long fermentations and a slow distillation for a green, grassy, lightly fruity spirit. It was the last of the Dufftown stills, the town said to stand on seven stills as Rome stands on seven hills.

Distilled in onion shaped copper pot stills, for a clean, grassy make with a fruity lift. Maturation came in an Oloroso cask, layered over the green Glendullan make. In these extractive early years the oak gives vanillin as vanilla and lactones as coconut over pear, apple and a creamy note. The fresh, fruity spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out a soft honey.

At a hearty 58.3% it carries real weight. A fresh, fruity malt with a green edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A light orchard fruit and a soft spice give it shape. It finishes light, fresh and grassy. This is a green, malty Speyside single malt.