Auchroisk 17 Years Old 1996 Liquid Library (The Whisky Agency)

Bottled by The Whisky Agency in 2013 as a 17 year old Liquid Library release from 1996 vintage Auchroisk, with 208 bottles distributed to the European market at natural strength of 48.2%. The Whisky Agency is a German independent bottler founded by Carsten Ehrlich, known for illustrated label artwork, with the Liquid Library series featuring vintage book and library themed designs.

Distilled in 1996 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.

Seventeen years in temperate Speyside warehousing 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. Settling at 48.2% reflects steady evaporative loss across the long maturation, with continued ester transformation integrating fruit and oak over the spirit's signature light, ester forward profile.