Littlemill 1983 - 20 Year Old - First Cask - Single Cask 2917

Littlemill was a Lowland distillery that until its closure in 1992 was Scotland’s oldest distillery, having been founded around 1772. After switching from triple distillation in the 1930s, Littlemill operated with a single pair of hybrid pot/column stills, and for a time the experimental malts Dumbuck and Dunglass were produced alongside Littlemill’s standard spirit. 

After a hiatus in the 1980s, Littlemill closed permanently in 1992 when the owners went bankrupt. The distillery was subsequently sold to Glen Catrine, who relocated the hybrid stills to their Loch Lomond distillery in 1997 and continue to steward Littlemill’s remaining stocks, releasing some very impressive long-aged official bottlings in the last few years. There are also some excellent independent bottlings of Littlemill from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail and Cadenhead’s. 

Sadly, Littlemill’s remaining buildings were destroyed by arsonists in 2004, shortly after the site had been acquired by Newstead Properties, a housing developer.

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.