£44.95
CAMERONBRIDGE DISTILLERY 2009
Founded in the late 1980s, Signatory Vintage was one of the most important of the new wave of Scottish independent whisky bottlers that revolutionised the whisky category in the 1990s and early 2000s.
In 2023, Signatory launched a new line of high strength single malt whiskies: The Signatory Vintage 100-Proof Editions. The concept behind the 100-Proof Editions was simple but brilliant - a range of vibrant young small batch single malts bottled without colouring or chill filtration at a high strength of 57.1% - equivalent to 100 UK Proof in the old Imperial system - and sold at great value prices.
The first Signatory 100-Proof Editions appeared at the tail end of 2023 and were immediately successful. The inaugural release included a 4-year-old Ben Nevis, a 13-year-old Ardmore and an outstanding dark chestnut-coloured Blair Athol 9-year-old that caused a sensation among whisky fans and became the must-have whisky over the Christmas season.
Signatory’s 100-Proof Editions have gone from strength to strength ever since. At the time of writing in 2024, the Signatory Vintage 100-Proof Editions are approaching their first anniversary after becoming one of the biggest success stories of the year.
There have already been over two dozen 100-Proof releases from Signatory, with the vast majority being bottled from first fill or refill sherry casks - another key factor in the range’s success.
Distilleries included in the Signatory Vintage 100-Proof Editions so far include top quality but underrated gems like Caol Ila, Linkwood, Glenrothes and Mannochmore, and other highlights include a superb bourbon-casked Glen Ord. Some of the biggest hype in the series however, has surrounded the ‘mystery’ single malts from Orkney and Speyside (M) - the 100-Proof editions from these two Edrington distilleries both proved so popular that repeat batches had to be bottled.
Signatory founder Andrew Symington was an early pioneer of the movement for natural colour and non-chillfiltration, a policy that has also served him well at Signatory’s distillery Edradour. Long known as an innovator and iconoclast in the whisky industry, the Signatory Vintage 100-Proof Editions prove Symington’s respect for the best traditions of single malt whisky, while the no-nonsense packaging, high strength and amazing value in the 100-Proof range demonstrate his instinct for giving the customers what they want.
CAMERONBRIDGE DISTILLERY 2009
Cameronbridge is the largest grain distillery in Europe. It can also lay claim to be the oldest. Its story also involves two of the most remarkable – and strangely overlooked – distilling dynasties in whisky, the Haig and Stein families.
The first record of a Haig making whisky was in 1655, when Robert Haig was hauled up in front of the church elders for daring to distil on the Sabbath. In 1751 his great-great-grandson John married Margaret Stein whose family were already making whisky at their distilleries in Kilbagie and Kennetpans.
Four of their sons became distillers, opening their own plants in central Scotland and Ireland. The youngest, William, founded Kincaple and Seggie in Fife and it was his eldest son, John, who founded Cameronbridge in 1824.
It was a time of rapid growth in production and also in new methods of making whisky. The Lowland distillers had long been large-scale producers, but had been limited by technology and law to producing their whisky from pot stills. Things were changing however, and in 1829 John installed the patent still which his cousin Robert Stein had invented and was operating at his own Kilbagie distillery. One of the Stein stills was used until 1929.
Soon after, Irish engineer Aeneas Coffey had improved Stein’s design with his own patent still. John Haig immediately installed one of them as well. When Alfred Barnard visited in the 1880s, two Stein, two Coffey and a pot still (to make ‘pot still Irish’) were operational. Though considerably larger in scale, today the same Coffey design is still used at Cameronbridge.
In 1865 John joined in an alliance with eight other grain distillers and in 1877 this was formalised into the Distillers Company Limited [DCL]. Haig joined with the owners of Port Dundas, Carsebridge, Glenochil, Cambus, and Kirkliston to control 75% of Scotland’s grain capacity. This not only allowed the new firm a dominant – eventually monopoly – position in supply, but the ability to fix prices. DCL would, in time and after many mergers, evolve into Diageo.
Cameronbridge remained as the powerhouse of DCL’s grain division and, with the closure of Port Dundas in 2010, is now Diageo’s sole wholly-owned grain plant and from 1998, production of Gordon’s and Tanqueray gins and Smirnoff vodka has also been based here. It was expanded further as part of a £40m investment in 2007.
It was unusual insofar as for many years it was the only one of the grain distilleries to have its own brand – Cameron Brig. Although other distilleries would try their hand at this, only Cameron Brig survived. In 2014, the distillery was given greater prominence as the provider of the whisky for the David Beckham/Diageo single grain brand Haig Club.
| Weight | 1.5 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 12 × 40 × 12 cm |
