Saltire Rare Malt, one of Scotland’s fastest-growing independent bottlers, has unveiled its most ambitious release to date with the launch of a 20-year-old single grain from the long-lost Port Dundas Distillery. Finished in virgin Japanese Mizunara oak and limited to just 558 bottles.
This is Saltire Rare Malt’s first-ever single grain bottling, its oldest release to date, and the first time it has worked with Mizunara oak, one of the rarest and most expensive woods in the whisky world. Bottled at natural cask strength of 59.7% ABV, without chill filtration or colouring, the release forms part of the ‘Lost Distillery Series’, a collection created in homage to Scotland’s closed and forgotten whisky-making landmarks.
The Port Dundas Distillery, once one of the largest grain distilleries in Europe, operated in Glasgow for nearly two centuries before its closure in 2010. For collectors, casks from Port Dundas are a chance to taste a piece of Scotland’s whisky heritage, a spirit that is increasingly scarce. Saltire Rare Malt has taken this rarity further by finishing the whisky in virgin Mizunara oak, a Japanese wood revered for its porous structure and ability to impart complex layers of sandalwood, coconut and incense-like spice.
The release has been curated in collaboration with Hans and Becky Offringa, known internationally as “The Whisky Couple”. Their tasting notes describe red fruit, cedar wood, waffles, maple syrup and warm leather, painting an image of “a vintage convertible with leather upholstery and a wooden dashboard, basking in the sun.”
Saltire Rare Malt was founded in Falkland, Fife, in 2024 by long-time friends and whisky collectors Nigel Heywood and Keith Rennie. Situated in the historic market town opposite Falkland Palace, the company launched on the 530th anniversary of the first recorded reference to Scotch whisky. Its philosophy is simple yet uncompromising: each cask is bottled only when it has reached absolute maturity, with no rushing of the process.
The Port Dundas 20-Year-Old Mizunara Oak bottling is available exclusively through Saltire Rare Malt’s website.
