Port Dundas 38 Years Old 1978 (Part des Anges)

This is a single grain Port Dundas, chosen and bottled by Part des Anges matured to 38 year old, from 1978 and bottled at 55.6%. Some 100 bottles were drawn. Once one of Glasgow's two grain distilleries, Port Dundas was opened in 1811 in the city of Glasgow before being closed by Diageo in 2010. Its spirit was the backbone of countless blends in the great age of Scotch.

Made from unpeated wheat with a little malted barley and worked through continuous patent stills, this is a smooth, low flavour spirit built for long ageing. Matured in an ex-Bourbon barrel, wood that rounds the spirit gently. At such an age it is a rare, deeply oaked grain, mellow, oily and fine. Patience is everything with grain, the finest examples resting for decades.

At cask strength 55.6% it is muscular. Broken down lignin lends vanilla and oak lactones a gentle coconut, with a butterscotch and toffee sweetness, atop the creamy grain make. Water is rarely needed, the spirit already soft and open. The finish is long, waxy and warming. This is one of the last windows onto Port Dundas grain. As a closed distillery, its remaining casks grow scarcer each year.