Rosebank 18 Years Old 1991 (Connoisseurs Choice)

This Rosebank was from the independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, aged 18 year old, from 1991 and bottled at 43%. Founded by James Rankine in 1840 on the canal at Camelon, near Falkirk, Rosebank was brought to a halt in 1993. Ian Macleod bought the site, the trademark and the last casks from Diageo in 2017.

The spirit was triple distilled and worm tub cooled, the Rosebank way, for the elegant, floral style that crowned it King of the Lowlands. An Oloroso butt held it, sherry meeting the grassy Lowland spirit. Around two decades the malt gains a waxy weight over its floral core. Long, cool Lowland maturation lets the floral spirit take oak slowly over many years. The malt was matured slowly in the temperate Lowland climate before bottling. Few lost distilleries are mourned, or bottled, as devotedly as Rosebank. Laid down before 1993, this is spirit from a distillery silent for three decades.

At an easy 43% it is gentle. The Oloroso brings dried fruit, fig and a nutty depth, and vanilla and a light cream from the barrel runs under gooseberry and fresh grass. A beeswax and a tropical fruit give it real depth. The finish runs clean, grassy and soft. This is stock from a closed Lowland legend, ever scarcer.