Review #75: Signatory Royal Lochnagar 1991

While we were having the Port Ellen and a sherry aged Port Charlotte at our new favorite scotch bar (Campbelltoun Loch in Tokyo), we decided to also veer off familiar territories and go with the Royal Lochnagar. It was mostly because I will always study any fat bottled Signatory that I see, and because we have had so little experience with the distillery.

The Royal Lochnagar was previously just known as “new Lochnagar” until Prince Albert and Queen Victoria visited with their three children in 1848 (Prince Albert had came the day before and liked it enough that he brought the family). It subsequently received the Royal Warrant, given to suppliers to the Royal court. Most of the whisky goes into Johnny Walker black and blue labels (it is now owned by Diageo), but they have also been doing independent releases.

Unfortunately as much as I like Signatory, this was good but paled in comparison to the other tastings we had that night. To be fair though, this had come after a Port Ellen and a sherried Port Charlotte…

Quick overview of our scoring system. Note that we try to give a “5” for an average whisky, which is lower than standard whisky scoring guides (typically around 80).

Additional Information

• Age: 20 years old. Distilled in 1991 and bottled in 2011
• Cask: Refill sherry butt
• Cask: 374 out of 577 bottles
• ABV: 58.3% (its cask strength collection; not the standard 1991 Signatory bottling)
• Highland

About Royal Lochanagar

• Because it’s so royal, Diageo bottled it as “House Baratheon” for their Game of Thrones set (which is a really fitting choice!)
• Smallest distillery in Diageo’s stable (550k liters/year)
• Located conveniently near the Balmoral Castle (royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) which is over 50,000 acres and comprise over 2,000 red deer (again, House Baratheon!)