Inchgower 1990-2011 - 20 Year Old - The Whisky Castle - Single Cask 6987

One of the great unsung Speyside distilleries, Inchgower’s importance to owner Diageo’s blends (particularly Bell’s) is so crucial that it is rarely officially bottled as a single malt. Inchgower’s spirit is known for its robust quality and structure, and is therefore well-suited both to long ageing and to sherry casks, but it also shines in refill bourbon casks where its clean, muscular profile can develop beautifully over longer maturation periods.

Inchgower was officially bottled as a 12-year-old ‘From the House of Bell's’ from the early 1970s until the late 1980s, when it was replaced by the Flora & Fauna 14-year-old. The best official bottlings are a pair of excellent Inchgower Rare Malts from 1974 and 1976 released in 1997 and 2004. Outstanding independent bottlings of 1960s and 1970s Inchgower vintages have been bottled by Cadenhead’s, Douglas Laing, Moon Import and the SMWS, among others.

An institution in the Highland village of Tomintoul, where it was founded in 1904, The Whisky Castle is a family-run independent retailer and whisky bottler with a long but infrequent history of releasing some exceptional single malt whiskies.

The Whisky Castle began bottling their own-label single malts and blended whiskies in the early 1990s, and their Castle Collection range has included excellent drams from distilleries including Lochside, Ben Nevis, Caol Ila, Glenallachie, Bowmore and Springbank. The Whisky Castle’s releases are bottled without colouring or chill filtration and recent bottlings have been at either 46% or cask strength.