Color: white wine
Viscosity: medium
Dram: undiluted and diluted
Conclusion / history:
A 28 year old single grain from an already closed distillery is always something special. The expectation is of course correspondingly high. Port Dundas was built in the eponymous district of Glasgow on the Forth and Clyde canal from originally two malt distilleries of the same name by Daniel McFarlane in 1811 and by Brown, Gourlie & Co in 1813. In 1845, Coffey stills were installed in both distilleries. The two distilleries merged in the 1860s and became the largest in Scotland at the time. Even the chimney was the tallest in the world at that time and thus also shaped the cityscape. In addition to the coffey stills, pot stills continued to be distilled. The largest had a capacity of 24,000 gallons, making it the largest in the UK. The distillery had one superlative after another, but then fell victim to the wave of Diageo (DCL) closings, even though they were a founding member of the DCL in 1877. In 2011 the distillery was finally closed and demolished. But now to the whiskey. The whiskey starts out very fruity and sweet but is always accompanied by a certain sharpness and bitterness, which in my opinion comes from old barrels. Overall, I personally lack the depth and this constant bitterness and sharpness bothers me a bit. It also has some strange notes that are difficult to identify. A nice whiskey to start the whiskey evening, but nothing more. I've drunk old grains that knocked me off my stool more.
My rating system:
100-95: Exceptional whiskeys
80-94: top whiskey
50-79: standard whiskey
0-49: flops
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Nose
Very fruity, sweet and deep nose, very creamy, also beautiful and many malty and grainy notes pour out of the glass, burnt popcorn, fresh rye farmer's bread from the oven, stored hay in the hayloft, vanilla pudding, oat biscuits, tropical fruits like guava, papaya, in addition, slightly spicy notes of ginger, chili and freshly ground pepper, slightly burnt shortbread biscuits, furniture polish, dried tobacco leaves, leather, slightly sour, fruity aromas of gooseberries, grapefruit, green apple, eggnog, omelet with paprika, muesli, something slightly musty, which I do can't really grab it, ACE juice, light grassy and floral notes, mushroom sauce, forest floor
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Taste
A powerful start and the alcohol carries the aromas very nicely, slightly spicy like ginger jam and wasabi, followed by a nice sweetness after freshly cooked vanilla pudding, there are further fruity and slightly sour notes, like green apple, gooseberries, grapefruit, very light citrus notes fades in the background to lime juice, nice creamy mouthfeel, but always accompanied by a certain spiciness, with water significantly more sweet notes come to light, toffee candy, popcorn, cotton candy, coconut blossom sugar, with a dilution to approx. 30% liquorice notes come out
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Finish
Sweet finish of vanilla pods and vanilla pudding, still really nice and creamy, but always accompanied by a bitterness and a certain spiciness reminiscent of ginger and chilli, plus popcorn, cotton candy and toffee candy according to Wertes Echter, in the background a nice fruitiness emerges that reminds of multivitamin juice
