Port Dundas 25 Years Old 1996 Cask #128323 (Signatory Vintage)

Signatory Vintage selected this single grain Port Dundas, aged 25 year old, from 1996, drawn from cask 128323 and bottled at 56.2%. The outturn was 268 bottles. First run in 1811 beside the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow, Port Dundas grew into a major grain distillery before being closed in 2010 after two hundred years. Its spirit was the backbone of countless blends in the great age of Scotch.

Made on a wheat led mash with Loch Katrine water and made in patent column stills rather than pot stills, this is a clean grain spirit with little weight of its own. It was matured in a first fill ex-Bourbon cask, the refill wood letting the spirit's sweetness show. Decades in wood take the light spirit into an oxidative maturity, full and gently waxy. Patience is everything with grain, the finest examples resting for decades.

At a natural 56.2% it is bold and full. Lignin breakdown lends vanilla and a coconut note from the lactones, with a toffee, dessert like sweetness, over a base of light citrus and tropical fruit. A gentle spice and polished oak frame the sweetness. The finish is creamy and slow to fade. This is one of the last windows onto Port Dundas grain.