Dallas Dhu 1979-2010 - 31 Year Old - Signatory Vintage - Cask Strength Collection - Single Cask 1385

Speyside distillery Dallas Dhu began production in 1899 and was acquired by Diageo forerunner DCL in 1929. The distillery suffered a serious fire in 1939 but was rebuilt and subsequently made malt whisky for blends from 1947 until its closure by DCL in 1983. Dallas Dhu was sold to Historic Scotland in 1986 and converted into a distillery museum - the equipment is still theoretically operational, but previous plans to resume whisky production have come to nothing.

No official bottlings of Dallas Dhu’s whisky appeared until the mid-1990s when a handful of superb Rare Malts Editions were released. Historic Scotland subsequently bottled a number of Dallas Dhu malt whiskies, including the last 1983 vintage cask ever filled at the distillery. Independent bottlings of Dallas Dhu single malt are becoming very scarce now; the best previous examples are from G&M, Signatory and Cadenhead’s.

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.