Girvan 25 years The Patent Still Single Grain

About the Girvan 25 years The Patent Still Single Grain

Girvan 25 years The Patent Still Single Grain is a single grain Scotch whisky from the Lowlands. It comes from the Girvan distillery on the South Ayrshire coast, in Scotland. Grain whisky usually disappears into blends. This bottling puts it centre stage at 25 years old and 42% ABV. William Grant & Sons released it in October 2013, only the second official bottling from the site. Charles Gordon installed the original patent still at Girvan in 1963. That Coffey still gave William Grant & Sons its own grain whisky for blending. Since 1992 the site has also used vacuum distillation. Boiling the wash at lower temperatures produces a very pure, clean-tasting spirit. Fifty years after that first still went in, the company marked the anniversary with this release. The nose leans on warm cereal and toasted almond, with honey underneath. Sweet fruit follows: dried fruit, peach, a hint of marzipan. Toffee apple sits in the middle, sweet and slightly tart. On the palate the sweetness widens into vanilla and fudge. Twenty-five years in oak have not made it heavy. At 42% the texture stays soft, and the finish fades slowly on honey. Most Girvan spirit ends up inside blends, unnamed and uncounted. Girvan 25 years The Patent Still Single Grain is the exception. It was only the second official bottling from the distillery. The whisky is a marriage of first and second fill bourbon casks. Some sherry wood and virgin oak join the mix. No colouring is added. That mixture of casks is what gives the long age its depth rather than dryness.