Inchgower 18 Years Old 1995 Cask #HL 9983 (Old Malt Cask)

Inchgower is rarely bottled on its own, most of its salty, nutty spirit going to the blenders, so independent releases carry the distillery's name where the blends do not. Hunter Laing, the Glasgow independent formed in the 2013 family split, selected this single cask, distilled in 1995, from the distillery's United Distillers and early Diageo era, and released it at 18 years old in its The Old Malt Cask range. Single cask HL 9983 gave 242 bottles, released for Belgium.

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 Oloroso sherry cask.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 50%, without dilution, the Oloroso wood gives dried fruit, melanoidins reading as fig and raisin with tannins adding a walnut dryness. At 18 years the cask has had time to round off the spirit's coastal edge and pull the flavours together.