Port Dundas 18 Years Old 2006 (King Cask)

A Port Dundas single grain, selected and bottled by King Cask, an 18 year old grain, from 2006 and bottled at 54%. Some 264 bottles were drawn. The Glasgow grain distillery Port Dundas, opened in 1811 in the city of Glasgow, was an enormous grain distillery until silenced in 2010 as grain moved to Cameronbridge. For decades its light spirit went into blends like White Horse and Bell's.

The spirit was drawn off tall continuous column stills on wheat and malted barley, a soft, sweet make ideal for blending. An Oloroso sherry cask shaped it, aged in open contact with air to build a nutty, dried fruit depth. By this age grain takes on real character, the oak rounding it into a creamy whisky. Grain matures faster than malt, the oak shaping a light spirit into something sweet and round.

At 54% it is big and oily. The Oloroso lends fig, raisin and a walnut depth, while the oak lactones a creamy coconut, vanilla comes from the oak lignin, and a fudge sweetness from caramelised hemicellulose, with grain sweetness running underneath. Soft orchard fruit sits behind the dessert sweetness. The close is soft, oily and warm. This is one of a dwindling number of bottlings from a closed grain distillery.