North Port Brechin 36 Years Old 1981 Cask #1708 (Signatory Vintage)

Released by Signatory Vintage for a milestone anniversary and labelled under the Brechin name, this 36 year old is a single Oloroso cask numbered 1708, bottled in an outturn of 537. The 1981 vintage comes from North Port in Angus, the Guthrie family's 1820 Highland distillery, distilled in its final working years before DCL closed the plant in 1983.

Thirty six years in an Oloroso sherry cask have given the dry, light spirit a deep, dark frame and carried it toward old age. The cask's melanoidins built raisin and nutty depth over the decades, the sherry tannins adding grip, while slow oxidation and a steady loss to evaporation drew the whisky into a rich, waxy maturity. The sherry wood does much of the talking at this age, but the dry Brechin spirit still shapes the whole dram.

Bottled at a robust 57.2%, the sherry and the years sit in fine balance. The melanoidins give raisin, fig and a walnut depth, residual sugars add date and treacle, and polished old oak frames a dry hay note underneath. North Port's juniper edge survives as a faint lift through the dried fruit, the finish long and rich, a sherried Brechin record of a demolished Highland name.