Glenugie 27y/o 1976 Cask#2700 Signatory Vintage 51.1%ABV 15ml / 30ml

If you look at the largest databases for whisky reviews and look at what Scottish distilleries have the highest average rating  - the top 5 are Brora, Port Ellen, Glenlochy, Glenugie and St Magdalene on Whiskybase and Whiskyfun. All of these distilleries were closed down although Brora and Port Ellen have just reopened. Getting hold of Glenugie and Glenlochy is pretty hard to find - the Sestante and Cadenhead Dumpy Glenugies and Rare Malt Selection Glenlochys have become legendary unicorns so those ones in particular require silly money to buy. 

This Glenugie popped up on an auction and it is a birth year bottle for me so had to get it. Liquid history. 

Review of this bottle on Whisky fun:

Glenugie 27 yo 1976/2003 (51.1%, Signatory Vintage, cask #2700, 257 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: it’s a leaner and straighter one, less of a fruit bomb than some other Glenugies. This one is rather all on straw, chalk, hay, minerals, wee coastal touches such as crushed shells and beach pebbles. Wet seaweed, swimming pools, sandalwood, cement and bath bombs. Some dried lavender, white flowers, ink and a soft, waxy hessian quality. Extremely pure, fresh and fragrant. With water: develops towards sunflower oil, toasted seeds, breads, sourdough - a good blanc du blanc Champagne. Mouth: limestone, putty, white pepper, beach sand, lemon jelly, lamp oil, mineral salts, waxed canvas and pear eau de vie. A really eloquent coastal theme running through this one. Hints of miso broth with dried seaweed, olive tapenade, dried rosemary, lanolin and carbolic soap. With water: a tad fruitier with tangerine, melon and apricot. Some cut green apple, more hay and straw notes and that nibble of white pepper is back. Finish: long, citric, precise and extremely fresh. Also rather mineral and chalky. Comments: Even stripped of much of its usual fruitiness, Glenugie is still such an impressive distillate. Purity and precision being the watchwords here. Some well aged cask strength riesling.
SGP: 461 - 90 points."