Signatory Un-chill Filtered Collection 2022 Releases | 46% ABV

My own curiosity got the better of me…

…introducing me to an important distillery worker you might not have known existed.

What role in managing a distillery would you say hold most importance or most significance? From the owner to the head distiller, master blender right through to the shop worker, all jobs and tasks play a vital part in the day-to-day running of an operational distillery. It spans further than the distillery grounds itself, with international brand ambassadors playing their part from a hugely important sales and marketing standpoint too.

As all roles play a key part (there’s no ‘i’ in team as they say), there’s one quite significant role that only a handful of distilleries (from research) “employ” to help with the smooth running of a distillery. We’ll touch on that in just a moment, but how I even became aware of this was purely coincidental.

On a random Tuesday evening, my wife and I found ourselves mentally drained from our 9 - 5 jobs and needed something meaningless and simple to watch on TV. It was too early for bed, plus we try to refrain from drinking on a school night.

During lockdown number two in the winter of 2020, we came to the agreement that going forward our day jobs would be 100% remote working or indeed office time with a commute would be significantly reduced. So, with some excitement we jumped on the bandwagon like many did that year and decided to get a pet. As many a meme joked, apparently plants are the new pets, and pets are the new kids. With us both being childless professionals, we thought “why not?” and got ourselves a kitten called Luna.

Scrolling through Netflix on this mundane Tuesday evening, a documentary named, Inside The Mind Of A Cat, appeared on our suggestions of what to watch. Our cat is completely mental and unpredictable, so we thought it would be a laugh if we found out why she loves sprinting into the window blinds and why she has a dislike for our drink coasters.

While the documentary itself was entertaining, we did get a bit of an insight into feline behaviour and some tell-tale signs of boredom or contentedness. One surprising element to the documentary was a look at some animosity towards cats throughout history. However, it focused on a bond between human and cat, and how cats have played a significant role in Scotland with distilleries.

I was bewildered at first, but it makes sense. Keeping a few cats around a distillery to fend away rodents in return for some food and perhaps a warm bed. I thought it would be an interesting topic to share with the Dramface audience. The role itself is titled ‘chief mouser’. A superb name. Quick side note, with the recent Conservative party leadership race to determine the next Prime Minister having taken place, there was an online campaign to have Larry the cat as the next PM. Larry being chief mouser to the Cabinet Office. A more fitting candidate in my opinion for PM! Back to Scotland, and as expected, within the grounds of a distillery there will be large stores of barley. Where there’s barley there will indefinitely be a contingency of mice creeping about for a feed. So, providing a home for one or two nimble and agile felines can be critical in keeping the rodents at bay.

 The Netflix documentary focused solely on the Lindores distillery from a ‘distillery cats’ topic, and the antics of their two companions Friar and Vesper. Friar has taken refuge at the front of house, schmoozing up to those who visit the Legacy bar. While Vesper is the queen mouser, stalking the distillery grounds for any unsuspecting prey that may be lurking around the machinery.

I thought this was brilliant and it got me thinking about what other distilleries in Scotland house a cat. It seems there’s a handful of quite famous ones. I thought it might lend as a nice segue into an actual whisky review, so I ended up getting my hands on some Ardmore and let’s just say we’ll ‘Park’ up in Orkney for our Unnamed Orkney whisky review.

 Ardmore was the home of Tommy the cat (not just the Primus song). The Three-Legged Beast of Ardmore, apparently had the biggest head the distillery workers had ever seen. Tommy was quite the hunter as I’ve read online that he decimated the mouse population around the distillery grounds. Well done Tommy!

 As we travel to Orkney, we find that Highland Park was once home to Barley, Malt & Peat. As the three kittens became a duo with the tragic loss of young Peat, Barley and Malt took it upon themselves to get down to work for many years before their deaths in the early 2000s, having spent 15 years side by side. Malt was described as a cat who facilitated her own tour of the distillery while Barley had a dark side. Sitting atop the gift shop shelves, Barley would pretend to be a stuffed toy. As passers by went to touch this display feline, out came the claws to the sudden surprise of those around.

So as Hamish’s dream of opening a distillery after winning it big on the lottery continues, it’s good to know that not only will my wife and I be put to good work, there's plenty of hunting to be done by Luna to keep the pesky rodents at bay and keep any distillery visitors entertained.

Review

So let me tell you more about the distilleries I’m reviewing today. As independent as cats are, it was great to find two indie bottlings of Ardmore and an Unnamed Orkney from Signatory. For clarity, I’ve had a look into whisky distilleries on Orkney. Why I say ‘whisky’ distilleries, Orkney is home to a vodka & gin distillery, so the liquid in my bottle comes from either Highland Park or Scapa.

Looking at a few flavour profiles on Highland Park and Scapa, Highland Park is generally described as “Rich, round, smoky & peaty” - with this example coming from Dave Broom’s World Atlas of Whisky. Also within this book is Scapa, described generally as fruity and spicy. Malt whisky yearbook 2022 leans a Scapa towards a fruity forward palate and a spice finish. The Dramface team would also say this liquid is Highland Park, seeing as there’s very little available liquid when it comes to Scapa for indie bottlers. 

If it smells like a Highland Park, and tastes like a Highland Park, it’s most definitely an Unnamed Orkney. I think Scotch’s worst kept secret in all honesty when it comes to independent bottlings. While we’re on Orkney, let’s have a gander at Highland Park. Why not? 

Founded in 1798 by David Robertson, Highland Park sits atop a hill above Kirkwall, the largest town in Orkney. A former illicit whisky site operated by Magnus Eunson. Magnus found himself under the strong arm of the law when arrested by John Robertson, an excise officer who took over production from Magnus in 1816. Like many distilleries in Scotland, ownership passed between many establishments with Highland Park being purchased in 1895 by James Grant (of Glenlivet) before being sold to Highland Distilleries in 1937. Fast forward to 1979, when a considerable amount of investment was pumped into marketing around Highland Park as a single malt. Now owners Edrington Group acquired the distillery in 1999.

On the grounds itself, 20% of Highland Park's own barley requirements are floor malted. One day on peat, one day on coal giving it a lovely medium/heavy profile. This is then blended with unpeated malt from the mainland. The peat being sourced from the nearby Hobbister Moor nature reserve, where 350 tonnes of peat are extracted from here each year, giving a pine-like and herbal fragrance to the liquid. What was a surprise to me was that since 2004, no Highland Park liquid finds its way into bourbon barrels. It really shouldn’t be of any surprise seeing as the Edrington Group and their Scotch brands are great sherry lovers (Macallan and Glenrothes). An old Highland Park in a bourbon hoggy? Now that would be a terrific dram! 

Jumping down to the Highlands, we find ourselves at Ardmore. A fairly large distillery in terms of production, Ardmore churns out 4.7 million litres a year and is a main component to the Teacher’s blend. The founding and construction of the distillery in 1989 by Adam Teacher resulted in the first distillery of William Teachers & Sons’. Ardmore is set deep in the farmland of ‘The Garioch’, near the River Bogie and the village of Kennethmont. An important part of the Teacher’s blend is peated whisky, where Ardmore finds itself the only distillery in the region producing peated whisky with phenol levels around 12 – 14 ppm.

Around 55% of production in the distillery is the peated Ardmore, with Ardlair making up the rest (used for blending purposes only). On to the whisky!

Review 1/2

Signatory Vintage Ardmore 11yo 2010, January 2022, 46% ABV

Matured in bourbon barrels, the cask numbers are 800975 + 800983, bottle number 164. 46%, natural colour and obviously non-chill filtered.

£46 online (Master of Malt)

Nose

Vanilla pods and ground coffee beans. It’s coming across as creamy, delicate, and soft immediately on the nose. A dusting of nuts with crunched raw almonds and unshelled peanuts. Little hint of a smoked salmon-based fish cake, with those breadcrumbs and herbs. Faintest waft of smoke but enticing and wanting me to explore further. Black pepper mixed with fresh tobacco. Back end becomes fruitier, reminding me of fruit salad confectionery and oat biscuits. Lovely stuff.

Palate

First sip transports me into the middle of a dense and lush forest in the middle of autumn. Weirdly this vivid imagery is coming through on the palate more than the nose. It has a slight saline & briny aspect to the taste. It’s full of flavour and a rather dense, oily feel to the mouth. Vanilla sponge cake with a strawberry jam filling comes to mind. Middle part contains some mint leaves and a hint of a floral. It evolves into a meaty dram. Beef stock and quite earthy. Quite a nice finish to this one, where the smoke clings on with that wee kick of white pepper. Ever so slight drying of the tongue, but it makes me go back for more.

Score: 7/10 HF

Review 2/2

Signatory Vintage Unnamed Orkney, 13yo 2009, May 2022, 46% ABV

Matured in Hogsheads, the cask numbers are DRU 17/A67 #18+19, also bottle number 164

£46 online (Master of Malt)

Nose

So rich and full of toffee goodness and fruitiness. Brown sugar, leaning more to a treacle and mixed in there is some spiced apple. There’s a pine tree/pine leaves waft in there too and a little bit of lavender. Herbaceous with some coriander and a mix of lime juice. Charred wood for sure, and a smoky element supplementing with the wood. White grape, lemon rind. Salted peanuts with that toffee foundation blossoming into salted caramel with a generous helping of buttery shortbread biscuits.

Palate

Immediate hit of tropical fruits. Pineapple and mango, developing into a touch of marmalade. Even going further…a Jaffa Cake! Surprisingly lovely. Amid the fruit comes smoke and tobacco. It slumps nicely into a hefty meat aspect. Reminds me of fried onions, pork sausages and gravy. A light maltiness with pepper pops up toward the end with a super long finish. The finish drops the gravy train at the final stop only to bring out more fruit. Canned pears in a sugar syrup, with a cinnamon spice and honey. Wow.

Score: 8/10 HF

The Dregs

I’ve had core range expressions and indie bottlings of both Ardmore and Highland Park (Unnamed Orkney). By a country mile, the independent bottlings have always been delicious and a cut above their core range offerings. Beef up the ‘traditional/legacy’ labelling or strip away this Viking marketing drive… these are two exceptional whiskies. I had a lot of fun finding the theme for this review and piecing it together with two brands on the same indie bottling label has been a treat.

I sipped these side by side. Similar in peat/smoke levels I thought it would be a nice flight to do some note taking. I was utterly delighted to have purchased both sub-£50 as any Ardmore or Orkney I’ve had from recent tastings have not disappointed whatsoever.

The Orkney just popped from the glass in comparison to the Ardmore. That’s no slight against Ardmore, it was terrific. This Orkney was utterly delicious. It’s still available online (as of writing this September 2022). Go get it. Get them both! Enjoy them in a flight side by side or among some non-smoky/peated expressions. Well done Ardmore and HP, but thank you Signatory for bottling these wee beauts.

Tried these? Share your thoughts in the comments below. HF

Other opinions on this:

Whiskybase (Ardmore)

Whiskybase (Orkney)

Got a link to a reliable review? Tell us.