Linlithgow 1982 McC (Mackillop’s Choice) (43%)

A Linlithgow single malt, selected and bottled by Mackillop's Choice, a 19 year old release from 1982, drawn from cask 1343 and bottled at 43%. Linlithgow was founded around 1753 by Sebastian Henderson between the canal and the railway, and silenced in 1983. Run by the Dawson family through the 19th century, it passed to DCL in 1912.

The spirit was run through the distillery's five stills, two wash and three spirit, to build an oily, individual make that blurs Lowland and Highland lines. Ex-Bourbon casks held the spirit, soft oak that lets the oily character lead. At this age the sharp white fruit settles into a fuller, waxy malt. Long maturation turns the grassy new make towards honey and soft tropical fruit. It was one of the five founding distilleries of Scottish Malt Distillers in 1914. Closed in the great cull of 1983, it never reopened, the buildings becoming flats.

At 43% it is clean and individual. Oily apple, gooseberry and a mineral note sit alongside soft vanilla and honey from the cask. A green apple and a herbal note lift it. It closes long, waxy and grassy. This is a finite pour from a lamented lost Lowland distillery.