Imperial 24 Years Old 1996 Cask #5602 (Connoisseurs Choice)

Founded at Carron in 1897 and demolished in 2013, Imperial produced its last spirit in 1998, leaving a finite and shrinking stock of single malt. This single cask was filled in 1996 and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail at 24 years old. Single cask number 5602 yielded 215 bottles, released for Europe.

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 24 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 56.6%, 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. Recorded bottle notes run to a coal gas note, leather, a rubbery note, a sherry note and a sweaty note. Imperial's esters persist underneath as stewed orchard fruit, into a dry, nutty finish.