Imperial 1979-1993 - 14 Year Old - Cadenheads Authentic Collection - Single Cask

Originally founded in 1897, Imperial was a Speyside distillery that enjoyed only sporadic production. Imperial was owned for most of its lifetime by Diageo forerunner Scottish Malt Distillers, who only operated it between 1955-1985. Imperial was sold in 1989 to Allied Distillers, who briefly restarted production but mothballed it again in 1998. Allied Distillers were taken over in 2005 by Pernod Ricard, who demolished Imperial in 2013 to make way for the construction of the enormous Dalmunach distillery. 

Imperial was never officially bottled as a single malt during its lifetime, although Allied did a rather mediocre official 15-year-old around the turn of the millennium with the distillery already in mothballs. The best Imperial single malts are older vintage independent bottlings from Cadenhead’s and Douglas Laing, and more recent editions from Signatory, the SMWS and Elixir Distillers.

In 1842 George Duncan established a wine merchant and distillery agency business in Aberdeen. Duncan was joined in the early 1850s by his brother-in-law William Cadenhead, who took over the business after Duncan’s death in 1858, changing the company’s name to Wm. Cadenhead. When Cadenhead died in 1904 the company passed to his nephew Robert Duthie, who developed the spirits side of the business.

Duthie died suddenly in 1931, and employee Ann Oliver was put in charge of Cadenhead’s. Sadly, Oliver’s tenure ended in financial difficulty and on her retirement in 1972 the business was forced to sell its entire inventory. Cadenhead’s was acquired soon afterwards by J & A Mitchell, proprietors of Springbank distillery, who relocated the business to Campbeltown. Cadenhead’s has flourished under Mitchell’s stewardship, releasing many legendary single malt bottlings in the 1980s and 1990s and now has outlets in Edinburgh and London as well as Campbeltown.