Port Dundas 29 Years Old 1995 Cask #64977 (Signatory Vintage)

Signatory Vintage bottled this Port Dundas grain matured to 29 year old, from 1995, drawn from cask 64977 and bottled at 54.4%. 223 bottles in all. Once Scotland's largest distillery in its prime, Port Dundas was established in 1811 on the Glasgow canal before being wound down by Diageo in 2010. After closure its casks passed largely to independent bottlers and a few official releases.

Grain whisky like this was worked through continuous patent stills from unpeated wheat with a little malted barley, giving a delicate spirit that ages oak first. Ex-Bourbon oak shaped it, the cask adding sweetness rather than weight. Past twenty years the grain turns deep, oily and softly waxy. Each year in the warehouse softened the spirit and deepened the cask sweetness.

At a full 54.4% it is deep and strong. The toasted oak gives vanilla, with the wood lactones lend coconut and a creme brulee note from the caramelised sugars, over light citrus and a soft tropical lift. A light citrus and soft tropical fruit run beneath the sweetness. The finish is long, waxy and warming. This is a piece of Glasgow distilling history in the glass.