Auchentoshan 13 Years Old 1998 Cask #102387 (Creative Whisky Company)

Bottled by Creative Whisky Company in 2012 as a 13 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 102387 of 1998 vintage Auchentoshan with 228 bottles distributed to the Netherlands market at cask strength of 56.5%. Creative Whisky Company is an independent bottler founded by Dave Stirk in 2005, with releases focused on single cask Scotch whisky at natural strength.

Distilled in 1998 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 collecting at 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 a single ex Bourbon American oak cask.

Thirteen years in temperate Lowland maturation drove measured 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. Holding 56.5% across thirteen years indicates a tight cask with minimal evaporative loss, and continued ester transformation layers polished fruit over the spirit's signature citrus and almond core.