North Port Brechin 1979 20 Year Old Malt Whisky - 70cl 61.2% - LIMITED EDITION & RARE

Before North Port distillery (or Brechin as it was originally known) was built, the residents of the Angus royal burgh were supplied with whisky by smugglers carrying it south from the north Grampians.

The Guthrie family took great pride in their distillery – modern machinery was installed to increase production capacity, though the whisky was distilled in ‘old fashioned’ pot stills and condensed in worm tubs using water from the Den Burn, which ran through the site.

Like the illicit whisky smuggling into Brechin, its water and peat also came from the Grampians, while ‘the very best barley’ was sourced from nearby farms.

North Port’s whisky was never officially bottled as a single malt during its lifetime, although Diageo had it bottled for its Rare Malts series in 1995, 1998 and 1999, as well as under the name ‘Brechin’ for its Special Releases in 2005.

SMD closed North Port in 1928 and aside from a brief airing it remained silent after the Second World War. North Port gained a second wind in the mid-1900s but became one of the nine DCL distilleries to close in 1983 as a response to widespread excess stocks in the market.

This exceptional 20 year old Highland malt was distilled at the, now silent, North Port (Brechin) distillery in 1979 and bottled as part of Diageo´s Rare Malts series in October 1999.

Please note as this is a vintage whisky, conditions of bottle/label and liquid level can vary - please note this bottle comes without the box. 

Nose: Newly sawn cedar wood. Resin, apple cider with a lime aroma. Some aniseed is present, slightly musty and acidic, like over-ripe purple plums.

Palate: Dark, minty chocolate. Candied apricots and pineapple. Maltiness and woody oakiness.

Finish: Astringent tannic. Slightly dry.

Whiskey fun has scored this North Port Brechin 1979 Rare Malt Whisky 78/100 overall on their site through customer recommendations.

Serge describes this whiskey as ‘Nose: roughly the same as the 1981 but even harder, grassier and oilier. Almost a curiosity. Maybe water will make it more civilised, let’s see... With water: that didn’t work – at all. It‘s all grass juice now, with just added hints of bitter apple peelings and big notes of lamp oil. Mouth (neat): a little sweeter than the 1981 this time but other than that it’s quite the same kind of beast. Extremely grassy. With water: hehehe, we got it! Sweeter and rounder but also saltier, with more spices (I get ginger, pepper, cloves, even chilli). Finish: very long, hugely peppery and mustardy... Alright, the best qualifier I could come up with about this one is ‘excessive’. Atishoo!.’