Inchgower 17 Years Old 1959 Dumpy Bottle (Cadenhead’s)

Built in 1871 near the fishing port of Buckie, Inchgower makes a briny, nutty malt that has long been a backbone of Bell's. Cadenhead's, Scotland's oldest independent bottler, bottled this, distilled in 1959, before the 1966 expansion that doubled Inchgower to four stills, and released it at 17 years old in its Dumpy Bottle range. It was released for Germany.

Inchgower's four stills carry steeply angled lyne arms that hold back the heavier, oilier vapours, part of why the malt comes out nutty, waxy and faintly saline. This bottling matured in an ex-Bourbon cask.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 80%, without dilution, the ex-Bourbon barrel adds vanilla from vanillin and a coconut note from oak lactones, over a light cereal sweetness. At 17 years the cask has had time to round off the spirit's coastal edge and pull the flavours together. The recorded notes run to citrus, fresh orchard fruit, dried hay, honey, leafy notes and malt sweetness.