Port Dundas 30 Years Old 1995 Cask #64945 (Signatory Vintage)

This is a single grain Port Dundas, chosen and bottled by Signatory Vintage, a 30 year old from 1995, drawn from cask 64945 and bottled at 56.8%. Just 236 bottles were filled. Port Dundas was one of Glasgow's two grain distilleries, first run in 1811 beside the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow and closed by Diageo in 2010. For decades its light spirit went into blends like White Horse and Bell's.

The spirit was run through the distillery's continuous Coffey stills from a wheat mash drawn on Loch Katrine water, the gentle grain make once destined for blends. Refill American oak shaped it, soft wood that lets the grain lead. Past twenty years the grain turns deep, oily and softly waxy. Grain matures faster than malt, the oak shaping a light spirit into something sweet and round.

At a hearty 56.8% it shows real weight. The lactones add coconut, vanillin from the lignin gives vanilla, and a rich toffee and fudge note, with the soft grain spirit carrying it. The palate is gentle, sweet and slow, with no rough edges. The finish is gentle, sweet and clean. This is one of a dwindling number of bottlings from a closed grain distillery.