This week’s whisky reviews, I remind you, are all of malts from unheralded Speyside distilleries; they were also bottled by Signatory. The week began with a Dailuaine 13, 2007 that was bottled for Specs in Texas. It continues today with an 11 yo Inchgower, which I think was just a regular release in Signatory’s Unchillfiltered Collection series. There are actually at least three Inchgower 11, 2007s released in this series that were all bottled in 2019 from proximate casks. I am sorry to inform that I don’t know which of those this sample is from. At the time that I acquired it I did not think to check and at this juncture I no longer remember who the source was and so cannot ask them. But maybe it’ll be representative of at least those casks. As to whether it’ll be representative of the distillery is a more complicated question. Most of Inchgower’s production goes into Bell’s, or at least it used to. Other than the 14 yo in the Flora & Fauna series, Diageo has released very few official Inchgowers in recent years. It is therefore one of many Scottish distilleries known far better through indie releases. Such have been all the other Inchgowers I’ve reviewed—which, oddly, have also all been older whiskies: the youngest before this one was a 20 yo. Anyway, let’s see what this is like.

Inchgower 11, 2007 (46%; Signatory; hogshead from a bottle split)

Nose: Lime, wet wool, cereals. On the second sniff the citrus is a bit sweeter even as some vegetal bitterness emerges. The bitter note fades as it sits. With a few drops of water the wet wool expands and some tart-sweet apple emerges along with some cider (slightly yeasty).

Palate: Comes in as indicated by the nose, thankfully, sans the vegetal bitterness. A very good drinking strength with thick texture. More citrus with time (lime peel) and it gets a bit musky. As it sits the soot pops out earlier and melds nicely with the lime; the wet wool from the nose is more pronounced as well. Water makes it sweeter here (the lime still dominant) and pushes the soot back a bit.

Finish: Long. There’s a charred, sooty note that emerges pretty quickly here along with the lime. More soot and some pepper at the very end. As on the palate with time and water.

Comments: Austere, old-school bourbon cask malt whisky. I was a bit worried about the vegetal bitterness on the nose—though it went away with time—but really enjoyed it from the get-go on the palate and finish. I’d be very happy if I had a bottle of this.

Rating: 87 points.