Invergordon 30 Years Old 1987 Cask #903159 (Murray McDavid)

A grain distillery in the malt heartland of the Northern Highlands, Invergordon sends most of its spirit into blends, leaving single grain releases to independent bottlers. This single cask was bottled by Murray McDavid, distilled in 1987, at 30 years old, for its Select Grain range. Single cask number 903159 yielded 550 bottles, released for the Netherlands.

Invergordon runs column stills over fifty feet tall on a maize and wheat mash, producing the soft, sweet grain spirit that forms the base of Whyte & Mackay's blends. Matured in ex-Bourbon casks with a finish in an Oloroso sherry cask.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 54%, without dilution, the ex-Bourbon wood gives vanillin for vanilla and oak lactones for coconut, with maltol for butterscotch, and the Oloroso wood adds dried fruit, with melanoidins reading as fig and raisin and tannins giving a walnut dryness. Recorded bottle notes run to cocoa, an oily texture, a sherry note, dried fruit, leather and seasoned oak. Long maturation has layered tropical fruit and a buttery, waxy weight over the grain's natural sweetness.