Glen Keith 1992-2015 - 22 Year Old - Signatory Vintage - Cask Strength Collection - Casks 120568-120

Glen Keith is a large Speyside distillery that maintains an extremely low profile. The distillery was founded in 1957 by Seagram’s and was experimental from the start: triple distillation was practised until the 1980s, and Glen Keith also experimented with gas-fired direct heating, Saladin box maltings and distilling with peated water in the 1970s. Some of these experimental spirits were bottled later as Craigduff and Glenisla by Signatory Vintage.

The main business of Glen Keith, though, was always to supply high quality Speyside malt for Seagram’s blends, particularly 100 Pipers. Mothballed in 1999, Glen Keith remained silent until being revived in 2013 after extensive refurbishment by Pernod Ricard, who had taken over Seagram’s Chivas Brothers portfolio in 2001. At auction, independent bottlers are a safer bet than the generally mundane Seagram-era official bottlings, with some outstanding fruity, waxy vintages from the 1960s and 1970s highly sought after.

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.