Auchentoshan 11 Years Old 2010 Cask #700972 (Best Dram)

Bottled by Best Dram in 2021 as an 11 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 700972 of 2010 vintage Auchentoshan with 249 bottles distributed to the German market at cask strength of 52.7%. Best Dram is a German independent bottler focused on small batch single cask releases at natural strength, with cask selections drawn from across Scottish distilleries.

Distilled in 2010 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 rum cask.

Eleven years in rum cask conditions drove distinctive secondary character into the lighter triple distilled base. Residual sugars and esters from molasses fermented spirit bring soft tropical fruit, brown sugar, and banana, while the previously held rum contributes glycerol body and trace ethyl propanoate. Cis and trans oak lactones still develop from the American oak staves underneath, with continued ester transformation at 52.7% integrating rum cask sweetness and the spirit's underlying citrus and almond core.