Auchentoshan 23 Years Old 1992 (Small Batch)

Bottled by Cadenhead's in 2015 as a 23 year old Small Batch release, drawn from 1992 vintage Auchentoshan with 456 bottles distributed to the Belgian market at cask strength of 46.6%. Cadenhead's was founded in Aberdeen in 1842 and is the oldest independent bottler in Scotland, now operated by J&A Mitchell of Springbank Distillery, with the Small Batch range presenting blended single cask releases.

Distilled in 1992 from 100% unpeated malted barley with Loch Cochno water from the Kilpatrick Hills, the wash was fermented around 62 hours across Douglas fir and stainless steel washbacks before triple distillation. Auchentoshan runs every drop through three copper pot stills, with the intermediate and spirit stages lifting cut to around 81% ABV. The extra copper contact strips sulphur compounds and fusel oils while concentrating ethyl hexanoate, isoamyl acetate, and other light esters, giving a clean spirit base filled into ex Bourbon American oak.

Twenty three years in temperate Lowland maturation drove patient oak extraction. Vanillin from lignin breakdown gave vanilla, cis and trans oak lactones added coconut and sweet wood, and char layer interaction produced furfural with Maillard derived caramelised sugars. The Small Batch format smooths individual cask variation, and tertiary stage ester transformation at 46.6% layers polished fruit over the lighter triple distilled spirit base.