Imperial 1979/2023 G&M PVC Private Collection #5317

Volume: 0.7 litres | Alcohol content: 48.7% | Chill filtration: No | Colouring: No

Special Features:

This Imperial combines 43 years of maturation in a single Refill American Hogshead with the history of a Speyside distillery that has since been demolished. Distilled on 16 July 1979, the whisky remained in cask 5317 until bottling on 12 January 2023. Refill denotes a cask previously used to mature whisky.

Gordon & MacPhail released this single-cask bottling in the Private Collection as part of Recollection Series #2. The whisky from the Hogshead yielded 133 bottles at a natural cask strength of 48.7%. This non-smoky Single Malt is neither chill-filtered nor coloured and comes in an oak presentation box containing a 0.7-litre bottle.

Tasting Notes:

• Nose: On the nose, ripe green apples mingle with exotic fruits and subtle ginger spice. Sicilian lemon peel leads into gentle notes of old leather and a hint of marzipan.
• Palate: On the palate, sweet pineapple and dried banana meet herbal notes. Grapefruit and Brazil nut then give way to mature oak.
• Finish: The finish is full and long, with lingering cocoa powder and fresh mint.

Distillery/Bottler:

Thomas MacKenzie founded Imperial in 1897. Repeated interruptions to production marked the distillery's history. Following its acquisition by Allied Distillers in 1989, production resumed in 1991, before Imperial closed permanently in 1998. The buildings were demolished in 2013; the new Dalmunach distillery opened on the site in 2015.

Independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail began in 1895 as a grocery shop established by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail in Elgin. John Urquhart and later his son George expanded the selection and long-term maturation of Single Malts. The company's approach includes carefully matching spirits with suitable oak casks and monitoring their development through cask samples. An extensive collection of earlier samples helps inform the decision on when to bottle. For the Private Collection, the directors select individual casks from these stocks.

Facts: