North Port 26 Years Old 1981 Cask #775 (Duncan Taylor)

This 26 year old is the sherried counterpart to Duncan Taylor's bourbon matured sibling, drawn from a single Oloroso cask numbered 775 in an outturn of 523 bottles. The 1981 vintage comes from North Port at Brechin in Angus, a Highland distillery founded by the Guthries in 1820 and closed by DCL in 1983, its make far better known in blends than under its own name.

Twenty six years in Oloroso sherry wood gave the dry, light spirit a richer, darker frame than it usually showed in plain bourbon casks. The cask's melanoidins, formed during the sherry seasoning, slowly drove the whisky toward dried fruit and a nutty depth, the sherry tannins adding grip while the long ageing settled it into full oxidative maturity.

Bottled at 52.9%, the Oloroso sits over the distillery's dry character rather than burying it. The melanoidins give raisin, fig and a walnut note, while a little residual vanillin from the wood adds vanilla under the dried fruit, softening North Port's juniper edge into something rounder and warmer. The finish is long, nutty and gently sweet, a sherried record of a demolished Highland distillery.