Imperial 1982 - 24 Year Old - First Cask - Single Cask 3972

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.

The First Cask range was a prolific series of single malt whisky bottlings by the UK’s largest mail order wine company Direct Wines Ltd, owner of Laithwaite’s and The Sunday Times Wine Club. From the early 1990s until the mid-Noughties Direct Wines released dozens of outstanding single cask whiskies annually under the First Cask label, almost all of which were bottled at 46%.

These whiskies were not particularly highly sought-after on release, probably because they were only sold online through a wine club.  Back then, of course, it was not widely known that the casks had been sourced from Signatory Vintage, which would certainly have raised their profile among whisky fans. Nowadays, although still frequently excellent value at auction, the First Cask collection - which includes hundreds of long-aged whiskies from distilleries including Brora, Port Ellen, Ardbeg and Macallan - is finally getting the recognition it deserves.