Auchroisk 29 Years Old 1988 (Authentic Collection)

Bottled by Cadenhead's in 2017 as a 29 year old release in the Authentic Collection, drawn from 1988 vintage Auchroisk with 180 bottles distributed to the French market at cask strength of 44.6%. 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 Authentic Collection presenting single cask releases at natural strength.

Distilled in 1988 at the Mulben distillery built by Justerini & Brooks in 1974, the wash was made from 100% unpeated malted barley with soft Dorie's Well water and fermented for around 53 hours in stainless steel washbacks. Auchroisk runs the spirit through four wash and four spirit stills with constricted lyne arms, encouraging high reflux that returns heavier compounds back to the pot. Shell and tube condensers give further copper contact, stripping sulphur compounds, with the spirit collected at around 70% ABV and filled into ex-Bourbon American oak.

Twenty nine years in temperate Speyside warehousing 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. Settling at 44.6% reflects steady evaporative loss across the long maturation, with tertiary stage ester transformation integrating fruit and oak over the spirit's signature light, ester forward profile.