Port Dundas is not a well known distillery, and lacks prestige as one of diageo’s grain producing distilleries. It’s located not far from Glasgow, and currently was a major contributor to blended scotch under the labels of Haig, JW, and White horse. Currently there are no OB and only independent bottlers are issuing bottling of casks in recent years, those are also not common.A SMWS single grain is also not something very common, so it’s rather nice to be able to try that one from this distillery/bottler combination.
SMWS G6.1- Port Dundas 28 yo ‘Spicy Cologne’ , Refill hogshead 51% ABV
Nose : lots of vanilla up front, which is no big surprise, however the nose is really perfumed with some elements of wood polish, white pepper wood and brown sugar.
Palate: Vanilla , sugar , spicy pepper , bitter wood , bitter cocoa.
Finish : bitter wood and cocoa, spicy.
Bottom line:
The name here is really in accordance with the dram. Spicy, and perfumed. Not very complex, not very exciting, but an OK dram. We do not expect a mere “OK” from SMWS bottling, so this is quite a disappointing dram in my opinion. Not bad, but nothing to write home about…
This distillery is closed and was located very close to the city centre of Glasgow. I think the buildings still remain: A friend of mine used to have an apartment at Speirs Wharf next door, and you could smell the distillery, what a nice way to wake up in the morning 🙂
Steffen