Port Dundas 26 Years Old 1998 Cask #2410052 (Murray McDavid)

Murray McDavid selected this single grain Port Dundas, a 26 year old grain, from 1998, drawn from cask 2410052 and bottled at 49.4%. 243 bottles in all. The Glasgow grain distillery Port Dundas, dating to 1811 in the heart of Glasgow's blending trade, was a major grain distillery until closed in 2010 after two hundred years. It once absorbed its neighbours to stand as the biggest distillery in Scotland.

Port Dundas made its whisky on wheat and malted barley, drawn off tall continuous column stills to give a light grain spirit that takes oak quickly. An Oloroso butt held it, building dried fruit and a walnut depth over the grain. Decades in wood take the light spirit into an oxidative maturity, full and gently waxy. The light make leaves room for the oak sugars and vanillin to come forward.

Undiluted at 49.4%, it is intense. The melanoidins of the Oloroso give fig, raisin and walnut, while creme brulee from the caramelised hemicellulose, lifted by the wood gives vanilla and a creamy coconut from the oak, over a clean, fruity grain base. It is round and creamy on the palate, sweet without cloying. The finish runs long, creamy and gently spiced. This is a finite drop from a vanished Lowland grain distillery.