St. Magdalene 35 Years Old 1975 Cask #RO/12/07 (G&M)

This St. Magdalene was from the independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, a 35 year old release from 1975, drawn from cask RO/12/07 and bottled at 43%. Only 164 bottles were released. St. Magdalene was built in 1753 in West Lothian's county town, and brought to a halt in 1983. There were no official bottlings in its lifetime; fame came with Diageo's Rare Malts.

The spirit was made in floor malted, coal fired pot stills in the old way, for an elegant, waxy make quite its own. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, lending honey and vanilla under the grass. At over three decades it is rich and waxy, tropical fruit, beeswax and old oak over a mineral base. Time in the cask deepens the oily spirit into tropical fruit and beeswax. It is among the most lamented of all Scotland's lost Lowland distilleries. Closed era stock like this is finite, every bottle one fewer left.

At an easy 43% it is gentle. Vanilla and a light cream from the barrel runs under a waxy, grassy depth with white fruit. It is waxy and deep, the fruit and oil woven in. A long, honeyed finish carries a grassy note. This is a vanishing dram from Linlithgow's silent distillery.