Dufftown 1980-1996 - 16 Year Old - Signatory Vintage Miniature

Dufftown is one of the lesser-known Speysiders, despite being one of the larger distilleries in Diageo’s portfolio. Dufftown was for many years part of the Bell’s whisky company, which also owned the Blair Athol, Inchgower, Pittyvaich and Bladnoch distilleries when it was acquired by Guinness in 1985. This hostile takeover brought all of those distilleries into the United Distillers fold and later into Diageo. 

Dufftown’s malt was bottled officially at least as early as the 1950s and an official 40-year-old appeared in the 1970s. A 15-year-old Flora & Fauna bottling appeared in 1988, followed by a Rare Malts Edition and an underrated sherried Centenary Bottling in the 1990s. Dufftown became the European face of The Singleton whisky range in 2007, and Singleton of Dufftown featured in Diageo’s Special Releases in 2013 and 2020. Independent bottlings of Dufftown whisky are easy to find.

Signatory Vintage Whisky Company was founded by Andrew Symington in 1988 after a spell as assistant manager at the Prestonfield House Hotel, where he had the opportunity to buy a cask of Glenlivet 1968. A robust and canny businessman, Symington had soon acquired some outstanding parcels of casks from great distilleries, and quickly established a reputation among single malt fans for good value, high quality single casks, the majority of which were released at full strength.

Throughout the 1990s and beyond, Signatory released outstanding whisky from Ardbeg, Glenfarclas, Springbank and many more, with frequently remarkable examples of lost or obscure distilleries. Soon established as one of the leading new wave independent bottlers, Symington was also an early exponent of bottling whiskies without colouring or chill filtration, a policy that has also served Signatory well at their Edradour distillery, which was purchased in 2002.