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EU SHIPPING FROM €16
$307
Single cask Imperial matured in an ex-Oloroso sherry butt, distilled in 1997 and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail at 14 years old. 268 bottles, 58.3% cask strength, from a Speyside distillery closed since 1998.
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Description
With Imperial demolished in 2013 and silent since 1998, bottlings like this are among the last records of a lost Speyside distillery. This single cask was filled in 1997 and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail at 14 years old, for its Reserve range. Single cask number 4964 yielded 268 bottles.
Fed by Saladin box maltings and distilled on four stills, Imperial produced a gentle, floral malt valued more as blend filling than as a single malt in its own right. This bottling matured in an ex-Oloroso sherry butt. Across 14 years, Oloroso is a fully oxidised sherry, so the wood entered the cask loaded with polyphenols and melanoidins, the latter reading as fig and raisin.
Bottled at its natural cask strength of 58.3%, without dilution, the ex-Oloroso wood gives dried fruit and a walnut dryness drawn from its tannins, with a leather and cocoa edge from slow oxidation. Imperial's esters persist underneath as stewed orchard fruit, into a dry, nutty finish.
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