Littlemill 25 Years Old 1988 Finest (Hart Brothers)

Hart Brothers has bottled single casks from Glasgow since the 1960s. This 25 year old Littlemill came off the stills in 1988 and was bottled in 2014, part of the Finest Collection series. A lost distillery leaves only what was already laid down, and those reserves grow thinner each year.

Matured in Oloroso, twenty-five years wrap the silky, floral spirit in the cask's character.

Bottled undiluted at 52.2%, the sherry cask adds dried fruit and nutmeg. Fresh apple, hay and a soft honeyed sweetness. Sherry-seasoned oak gives up melanoidins and wood sugars for fig, raisin and nutmeg, the tannins lending a polished, dry backbone. A quarter-century and more of angel's share has slowly lowered the strength, the humid warehouse favouring alcohol over water.