Imperial 25 Years Old 1997 Cask #4961 (G&M)

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 1997 and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail at 25 years old, for its The Recollection Series #2 range. Single cask number 4961 yielded 143 bottles, released for Germany.

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 25 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 52.1%, 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 cocoa and a coal gas note. Imperial's esters persist underneath as stewed orchard fruit, into a dry, nutty finish.