North Port Brechin 19 Years Old 1981 (Gordon & MacPhail)

This Connoisseurs Choice 19 year old comes from a 1981 vintage, spirit laid down only a couple of years before North Port stopped distilling for good. Gordon & MacPhail bottled it under the Brechin name from the Angus distillery the Guthries founded in 1820, one of the nine DCL plants closed in the 1983 cull and demolished in 1994 to make way for a supermarket.

Nineteen years in ex-Bourbon American oak framed the dry, fruity make in soft, gentle wood. The whisky moved through integration into oxidative maturity, the cooked orchard fruit settling and a light toasted note building, the bourbon oak lending sweetness without ever dominating the lighter spirit beneath it. Even at this gentle strength the spirit keeps the dry, clean shape that the worm tub condensers at Brechin gave it.

Reduced to 40% for bottling, it is an easy, characterful dram. The lignin breakdown lends vanilla through vanillin, caramelised hemicellulose adds a toasted, toffee edge, and the dry citrus and cooked fruit of the distillery's style sit clean on top. The finish is soft and lightly sweet, a record of one of North Port's last working years from a Highland distillery now demolished.