Glenury Royal 1975-1998 - 23 Year Old - Signatory Vintage - Single Cask 5238 - Miniature

Glenury Royal was a high class Highland distillery in the portfolio of Diageo forerunners Scottish Malt Distillers, but fell victim to the whisky crisis of the 1980s and was closed in 1983. The distillery had been founded in 1825 by Captain Robert Barclay Allardyce, who achieved great fame in 1809 by walking 1000 miles in 1000 hours for a bet, and later acquired the ‘Royal’ suffix for his distillery from his friend King William IV.

Glenury was extensively modernised in the 1960s after Diageo forerunner DCL purchased the distillery in 1953. A sherry-influenced 12-year-old official bottling of Glenury Royal appeared in the 1970s under DCL’s subsidiary John Gillon & Co., but the famous bottlings now are the four superb Rare Malts editions that appeared 1995-1999 and the subsequent Diageo Special Releases, the best of which is the Glenury Royal 1968 36-year-old bottled in 2005.

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.