In the 1980s, Andrew Symington was assistant director of Edinburgh’s renowned Prestonfield House, a five-star hotel housed in a former country manor built in 1687 by architect Sir William Bruce for the city’s Lord Provost James Dick. Dick first bought the Priestfield estate in 1671, but the original house had burned down in an anti-Catholic riot in 1681. In 1689 the estate was renamed Prestonfield to distance it from the religious connotations of its original name. The estate remained in the family until it was converted into a hotel in the 1960s.
The Prestonfield House Hotel
Famous guests at the hotel and restaurant include Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Sean Connery and Elton John. Many key players in the whisky industry also invited clients there and the hotel bar was stocked with an impressive array of malts. It didn’t take long for Andrew Symington to take an interest and he soon began bottling casks specially for the hotel under the Prestonfield label. These notably included a Bowmore 1965 and two Springbank 1967s, all bottled in 1987.
Symington eventually left Prestonfield House to become an independent bottler in 1988. He set up a small bottling line in his warehouses in Edinburgh and founded Signatory Vintage, quickly becoming a leading name in the industry alongside established players such as Gordon & MacPhail and Cadenhead. Signatory Vintage immediately stood out for its rejection of artificial colouring and chill-filtration, its penchant for cask strength bottlings and its memorable labels. Single malts were still something of a niche product, but the tides were turning and in the same year United Distillers launched the soon-to-be iconic Classic Malts range.
Signatory Vintage bought the right to use the hotel’s name for its releases and labels and the whiskies were bottled by The Prestonfield Whisky Co. Ltd. There was no mention of Signatory Vintage on the bottle. The range used three different labels, one with a coloured ribbon, another with a black and white print of Prestonfield House, and a third featuring a colour image of the hotel and a peacock. Many miniatures were also released, as well as a handful of crystal decanters engraved with an image similar to the one found on the coloured labels. Some bottlings were released at 40%, 43% or 46% ABV and others at cask strength. Clearly Andrew Symington’s unique skills and trademarks were already in place in the Prestonfield range.
The last bottling in the range was released in 2011, a Glen Scotia 1977 for La Maison du Whisky. Although many of Signatory Vintage’s ranges are of note, Prestonfield is particularly popular due to the high quality of the malts—most distilled in the 1960s and 1970s—and the historic connection to Andrew Symington’s early days as an independent bottler, where he developed what would become the house’s signature style.
Prestonfield Estate’s peacocks
A chronological list of bottlings in the range
Bowmore 22 Year Old 1965, 43%, 75 cl, 1987
Bowmore 21 Year Old 1966, 43%, 75 cl, 1987
Springbank 20 Year Old 1967, 46%, 75 cl, 1987
Springbank 20 Year Old 1967, 46%, 75 cl, 1987
Bowmore 16 Year Old 1972, 43%, 75 cl, 1988
Caperdonich 16 Year Old 1972, 40%, 75 cl, 1988
Glendronach 18 Year Old 1970, 43%, 70 cl, 1988
Balvenie 15 Year Old 1974, 43%, 75 cl, 1989
Bruichladdich 20 Year Old 1969, 43%, 75 cl, 1989
Glen Keith 22 Year Old 1967, 46%, 75 cl, 1989
Tomintoul 18 Year Old 1971, 40%, 75 cl, 1989
Glendronach 20 Year Old 1970, 43%, 75 cl, 1990
Highland Park 16 Year Old 1974, 57%, 75 cl, 1990
Ardbeg 17 Year Old 1974, 43%, 70 cl, 1991
Glen Mhor 26 Year Old 1965, 56%, 75 cl, 1991
Glenrothes 16 Year Old 1975, 43%, 70 cl, 1991
Caol Ila 18 Year Old 1974, 43%, 70 cl, 1992
Glenlivet 29 Year Old 1963, 52.1 %, 70 cl, 1992
Tomatin 26 Year Old 1966, 43%, 70 cl, 1992
Glendronach 24 Year Old 1970, 43%, 70 cl, 1994
Glenfarclas 24 Year Old 1970, 43%, 70 cl, 1994
Longmorn 27 Year Old 1969, 43%, 70 cl, 1996
Glendronach 24 Year Old 1975, 46%, 70 cl, 1999
Port Ellen 24 Year Old 1975, 46%, 70 cl, 1999
Brora 19 Year Old 1981, 58.8 %, 70 cl, 2000
Bunnahabhain 20 Year Old 1980, 54.8 %, 70 cl, 2000
Glendronach 23 Year Old 1976, 46%, 70 cl, 2000
Caol Ila 28 Year Old 1974, 46%, 70 cl, 2002
Bowmore 24 Year Old 1980, 46%, 70 cl, 2004
Springbank 34 Year Old 1970, 51.2%, 70 cl, 2004
Clynelish 33 Year Old 1973, 54.3%, 70 cl, 2006
Clynelish 33 Year Old 1973, 54.6%, 70 cl, 2006
North British 45 Year Old 1962, 59.9%, 70 cl, 2007
Bowmore 36 Year Old 1972, 48.8%, 70 cl, 2008
Ben Nevis 34 Year Old 1975, 62.6 %, 70 cl, 2009
Ben Nevis 34 Year Old 1975, 63%, 70 cl, 2009
Bowmore 20 Year Old 1990, 50.7%, 70 cl, 2010
Glen Scotia 33 Year Old 1977, 49.1%, 70 cl, 2011
Bowmore 22 Year Old 1965
43%, 75 cl
At its 43% ABV, this Bowmore has no lack of complexity. It boasts not only the usual notes of exotic fruits (mango, pineapple) but also a myriad of citrus fruits (bitter orange, grapefruit, kumquat) and orchard fruits (apricot, plum). This bottle also stands out for its tertiary (leather, coffee), peaty and slightly herbaceous aspect, rarely found with such intensity in Bowmore from the 1960s, which are often more fruit-forward.
Clynelish 33 Year Old 1973 Prestonfield 1st Release
54.3%, 70 cl, #8912
405 bottles
A very exotic Clynelish marked by the presence of an somewhat Brora-like peat. Clynelish’s unique notes of honey, resin and beeswax are also found. This is a very fruity (orange, lemon) and exotic (Victoria pineapple, guava, mango) whisky, with notes nuanced by a more tertiary character that brings tobacco and leather to mind. Finally, notes of aromatic plants (aniseed, gentian) and spices (ginger, pepper) are also revealed. A mystifying Clynelish with a complexity sure to captivate the taster.
