Allt-a-Bhainne 23 Years Old 1995 River Elbe (Jack Wiebers)

Distilled in 1995 and bottled by Jack Wiebers Whisky World in 2018 under the River Elbe imprint, this is a 23 Years Old Allt-a-Bhainne at 49.9% ABV from ex Bourbon maturation. The release is one of 228 bottles. The River Elbe series, named for the central German waterway, continues the bottler's tradition of themed single cask releases.

Allt-a-Bhainne ferments malted barley for 48 to 50 hours on Mauri liquid yeast in closed stainless steel washbacks, then double distills through two copper wash stills and two copper spirit stills with steam heating and shell and tube condensers. The short Speyside ferment produces a clean malt forward spirit built as a blend filler for Chivas Regal, Passport and 100 Pipers. New make is reduced with Rowantree Burn water and tankered to Keith for cask filling and maturation, since the distillery holds no warehousing on site.

Ex Bourbon American oak frames cask contribution on vanillin and oak lactones from the toasted and charred staves, with Maillard chemistry from hemicellulose oak sugars driving honey and vanilla. The clean American oak palette suits Allt-a-Bhainne's lighter blend filler spirit. The drop in cask strength to under 50% across twenty three years suggests more evaporative warehousing conditions than the higher strength sister releases from the same vintage, with the longer alcohol loss possibly indicating warmer or drier storage environment in the Keith warehouses.