Auchroisk 14 Years Old 2006 Cask Series 014 (North Star)

Bottled by North Star Spirits in 2021 as a 14 year old release in Cask Series 014, drawn from 2006 vintage Auchroisk with 264 bottles distributed globally at cask strength of 56.3%. North Star Spirits is an independent bottler founded in Glasgow in 2016 by Iain Croucher, with the Cask Series presenting numbered editions selected at natural strength.

Distilled in 2006 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 Oloroso sherry casks.

Fourteen years in European oak Oloroso conditions drove deep sherry character into the lighter Speyside base. Ellagitannins and gallic acid from the European oak build dried walnut and grip, while oxidative aldehydes including acetaldehyde and syringaldehyde develop nutty, leathery rancio. Fermentation derived sotolon adds dried fig and curry leaf, with slow concentration of glycerol lending body, integrated with the spirit's underlying light ester signature at 56.3%.