Caol Ila 21 years old (D.1981, B.2002) Signatory Vintage / 58.2% / 0.7l

Signatory Vintage, founded in 1988 by Andrew and Brian Symington, is a leading independent bottler and distributor of whisky.

Few people remember that Symington started with just £100,000 and nearly went bankrupt several times in the first five years of operation. The name "Signatory" means Signatory and originally Symington intended to hire someone famous to sign each edition with his signature on the label. The first cask of whisky bottled by Signatory was Glenlivet 1968, but before the company found the right signatory, there was no trace of the whisky. The Caol Ila presented here, distilled on 27 January 1981, spent 21 years in cask no. 465 and was bottled on 26 July 2002, in an edition limited to 364 bottles.

Nose : sherry and peat smoke, vanilla cream, raisins, apple pie sprinkled with cinnamon, candied lemon peel, cocoa powder, notes of nutmeg, pepper and oak.

Palate : rich and quite sweet, multi-berry jam, crème brûlée, toffee, milk chocolate, black pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, oak and peat smoke.

Finish: quite long, smoke and ash, dark chocolate, raisins, dried berries, pepper, nutmeg and oak.