Signatory Scottish Wildlife

[bear]

I've recently been given this box set as a gift and would like to find out more about it. Does anyone have any information on it, when it was released, any more in the series etc? The four minatures are all 10 year olds and 43%.

From left to right:
Port Ellen
Balmenach
Strathmill
Mortlach

Cheers

[Willie JJ]

Hi Bear
There were only the four bottlings released in the 90s I think. They are pretty early Sig stuff and I have only tried two of them. The PE reminded me and others (I expect Gordon will comment as he owned the bottle) of nothing so much as horse piss. Really not very good. The Mortlach on the other hand Gordon and I found hiding behind the bar in the Bowmore Hotel and it was pretty good. No idea what the others are like but its a really nice set. Good present. I have a 70cl bottle of the Mortlach but haven't opened it yet (my brother-in-law says he is going to put that on my gravestone). I am looking forward to opening it at some point. It was nice.

[Willie JJ]

I've consulted Harry's Guide on this and he suggests that The Scottish Wildlife Series was probably Signatory's first range, so very early indeed.

[Spirit of Islay]

Nice Set !
Yes the 10yo Port Ellen confirmed to me why PE was shut down in favour of Lagavulin and Caol Ila , pretty awful....
As Willie said we found a bottle of the Mortlach behind the Bar of the Bowmore Hotel during Feis Ile 2009 , we really liked it and it was reasonably priced , sure they had no idea as to what they had.....

[bear]

Thanks Willie and Gordon. I just had a look at both your tasting notes on SOI and can see it doesn't sound great. However I also found this on whiskyfun, which seems to suggest a different opinion - although there are no tasting notes.

http://www.whiskyfun.com/ArchiveJune04.html#200604

about a third of the way down the page.

[Willie JJ]

Yeah I think the lads over there have got a bit more experience of drinking horse piss than we have.

I suppose its possible that Gordon's bottle was a dodgy one. Lots of folk tried it and I don't recall a lot of enthusiasm. You'll find a range of views on it if you trawl this thread:

Live Port Ellen tasting

[Willie JJ]

Well obviously I'm not saying it was undrinkable.

However, if I was compiling a list of whiskies in order of enjoyment (I'm not) it would probably appear on page 237 or so.

[Spirit of Islay]

I was actually going to use this bottle in a tasting during the 2005 Feis Ile and pulled it after i opened it to write notes , something just wasn't right , wouldn't say it was a bad bottle , it had "Bad" notes i picked up in other PE's before and since , it wasn't very nice to say the least , 10yo PE didn't match up to similarly aged other Islays......

[bear]

Yeah I think the lads over there have got a bit more experience of drinking horse piss than we have.

I was wondering the experience of the tasting panel on whisky fun, it doesn't seem to be the same people for long periods which surely changes the accuracy/fairness of there rating system. Or am I misinformed/missing something?

It just goes to show how peoples tastes are different and the difference a few more years in the cask can make. I don't think I'll open it after reading through more of the tasting notes. It will probably be worth a lot more to me closed, along with the other bottles of collectable horse piss i've accumulated

Thanks for sharing your knowledge anyhow