Inchgower 29 Years Old 1989 (The Whisky Agency)

Inchgower sits on the Moray Firth coast outside Buckie, a Speyside distillery in name whose malt is salty and savoury in a way the region's usually are not. The Whisky Agency bottled this, distilled in 1989, from the distillery's United Distillers and early Diageo era, and released it at 29 years old. It was released for Italy.

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 ex-Bourbon cask.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 51.3%, without dilution, the ex-Bourbon barrel adds vanilla from vanillin and a coconut note from oak lactones, over a light cereal sweetness. At 29 years the long maturation has deepened the spirit, the oak adding weight to its savoury core. The recorded notes run to a mossy, earthy note, cocoa, citrus, fresh orchard fruit, honey and malt sweetness.