Port Dundas 21 Years Old 2000 Cask #305494 (Douglas Thomson)

Single grain Port Dundas, picked by Douglas Thomson, a 21 year old grain, from 2000, drawn from cask 305494 and bottled at 57%. Just 160 bottles were filled. The Glasgow grain distillery Port Dundas, raised in 1811 at the highest point in Glasgow, was a landmark Glasgow grain works until closed and cleared after 2010. A founding member of the grain combine DCL in 1877, it supplied blenders across the country.

Distilled on wheat and malted barley and drawn off tall continuous column stills, it began as a clean, sweet grain spirit. Ex-Bourbon American oak held the spirit, gentle wood that flatters light grain. Two decades and more carry the grain into a deep, rounded maturity, concentrated and waxy. Long, cool warehouse ageing lets cask and spirit knit slowly rather than forcing the flavour.

Undiluted at 57%, it is intense. Lignin breakdown lends vanilla and a coconut note from the lactones, with a toffee, dessert like sweetness, atop the creamy grain make. Sweet and creamy, it coats the palate gently. The finish runs long, creamy and gently spiced. This is a rare survivor from a demolished grain works.