Inchgower 13 Years Old 2000 Cask #809757 (BB&R)

Inchgower sits on the Moray Firth coast outside Buckie, a Speyside distillery in name whose malt is salty and savoury in a way the region's usually are not. Berry Bros & Rudd, the London wine and spirits merchant, selected this single cask, distilled in 2000, and released it at 13 years old in its Berrys' range. It came from single cask 809757, released for France.

Inchgower's four stills carry steeply angled lyne arms that hold back the heavier, oilier vapours, part of why the malt comes out nutty, waxy and faintly saline. This bottling matured in an ex-Bourbon cask.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 56.1%, without dilution, the ex-Bourbon barrel adds vanilla from vanillin and a coconut note from oak lactones, over a light cereal sweetness. At 13 years the wood and the salty, nutty spirit are roughly in balance.