Sold outMar 2023In short · Inchgower (Speyside), 12 years.
“After eight years in ex-bourbon wood, this spent the rest of its days in a first fill oloroso hogshead.…”Extract · full tasting notes at SMWS
SMWS 18.53 is a single cask of Inchgower, in the Speyside region, 12 years old, bottled at 56.2%, released in the Mar 2023 Outturn. Every Society bottle numbered 18.x is from Inchgower.
Specs, price and tasting-note extract from the SMWS. Full notes on smws.com.
On the Moray coast at the edge of Buckie, where Speyside meets the sea, Inchgower has stood since 1871. This is a coastal Speysider, and it tastes like one, a firm, slightly salty, waxy spirit with a nutty edge that sets it apart from the softer valley malts inland. Owned by Diageo, it has spent most of its life as a backbone of blends, above all Bell's, and bottlings under its own name are comparatively rare, which is part of the quiet thrill of meeting it as a single cask. A working distillery, unshowy, shaped by the salt air off the Moray Firth.