Dumbarton 1963-1989 - 26 Year Old - Signatory Vintage - Casks 2012-2014 - Miniature

The Dumbarton grain distillery was built in 1937/8 by the Canadian firm Hiram Walker-Gooderham and Worts to supply grain whisky for their Ballantine’s blended Scotch whisky brand. Hiram Walker was always innovative, and Dumbarton began life with unusual stainless steel column stills which were only capable of distilling corn (maize). 

The Dumbarton complex also housed two pot stills to make the Inverleven single malt, and in 1956 Scotland’s first Lomond still was commissioned onsite, making a separate single malt called Lomond. The Lomond still was decommissioned in 1985, with Inverleven following suit in 1991; the grain distillery was eventually shuttered in 2002 under Pernod Ricard. Inverleven and Lomond’s stills survive, however, and are now used at both Bruichladdich and the Waterford distillery in Ireland.

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.