Glen Mhor 1979-1999 - 20 Year Old - Signatory Vintage - Single Cask 697 - Miniature

Glen Mhor was an old-school Highland distillery that was closed by Diageo forerunner DCL during the whisky lake crisis in 1983. Built in Inverness in 1892, Glen Mhor made a rich, oily, grassy, austere Highland single malt whisky and was run independently for most of its life by distillers and blenders Mackinlay & Birnie, who also owned the neighbouring Glen Albyn distillery in Inverness. DCL bought Mackinlay & Birnie in 1972.

Mackinlay & Birnie bottled Glen Mhor as a single malt very early on, and 1950s-70s official bottlings of Glen Mhor 6-year-old, 10-year-old and 12-year-old crop up at auction from time to time. Diageo released two 1970s vintages in the Rare Malts series in the early 2000s and Gordon & MacPhail bottled high class Glen Mhor under license and for their own ranges. Some great Glen Mhor whiskies have been bottled by Moon Import, Cadenhead’s and the SMWS, among others.

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.