Miltonduff 1961-1996 - 35 Year Old - Signatory Vintage - Single Cask 51 - Miniature

Miltonduff distillery is a large, quiet Speyside workhorse, spending its days providing spirit for Ballantine’s blended whisky, with which it has been associated since 1936 when Ballantine’s owner Hiram Walker bought the distillery. Miltonduff and Ballantine’s became part of Pernod Ricard’s portfolio when former owner Allied Domecq was gobbled up by Pernod in 2005. In 2022 a major expansion plan was announced for Miltonduff that will take the distillery’s capacity to almost 16m litres per year.

In 1964, during the Hiram Walker days, Miltonduff was fitted with a pair of Lomond stills, on which the experimental Mosstowie single malt was produced until 1981. Independent bottlings of Mosstowie can still be found at auction, with excellent examples by Signatory and Sestante. Official bottlings of Miltonduff are rare, but there have been some great casks over the years from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail, Duncan Taylor, the SMWS and the Italian bottlers Sestante, Samaroli and Moon Import.

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.