Inchgower 12 Years Old 2011 Small Batch Edition #3 (Signatory)

Few Speyside distilleries taste of the sea, but Inchgower, near the Buckie fishing harbour, carries a briny, waxy character into almost everything it makes. Signatory, the long established Edinburgh independent, bottled this, distilled in 2011, and released it at 12 years old in its Small Batch Edition #3 range. It was released for Europe.

The distillery's spirit is built for body rather than elegance, nutty and waxy with a coastal salt note unusual for Speyside. This bottling matured in an Oloroso sherry cask.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 48.2%, without dilution, the Oloroso wood gives dried fruit, melanoidins reading as fig and raisin with tannins adding a walnut dryness. At 12 years the wood and the salty, nutty spirit are roughly in balance. The recorded notes run to citrus, a coal gas note, a cooked vegetable note, a sherry note, dried fruit and malt sweetness.