Port Dundas 25 Years Old 1991 Cask #50412 (Creative Whisky Company)

A Port Dundas single grain, selected and bottled by Creative Whisky Company, aged 25 year old, from 1991, drawn from cask 50412 and bottled at 55.6%. Some 277 bottles were drawn. Founded in 1811 in the north of Glasgow, Port Dundas grew into an enormous grain distillery before being silenced in 2010 as grain moved to Cameronbridge. What survives is held by Diageo and a scattering of independent bottlers.

Distilled on a wheat led mash with Loch Katrine water and made in patent column stills rather than pot stills, it began as a clean, sweet grain spirit. It was matured in an ex-Bourbon barrel, wood that rounds the spirit gently. Past twenty years the grain turns deep, oily and softly waxy. Patience is everything with grain, the finest examples resting for decades.

At cask strength 55.6% it is muscular. Lignin breakdown lends vanilla and a coconut note from the lactones, with a toffee, dessert like sweetness, atop the creamy grain make. There is a buttery, dessert like quality long aged grain does so well. The finish is creamy and slow to fade. This is proof of how gracefully old grain can age.