Littlemill 8 Years Old (bottled 2000)

Bottled around 2000, this 8 Year Old is the old standard Littlemill, drawn from a distillery already silent since 1992. A young, everyday face of a malt whose history runs back to 1772, when accommodation was built at Bowling for the King's excise officers.

The light Lowland spirit came off Littlemill's unusual columned stills, which promoted heavy reflux and a clean, fruity distillate. Eight years in a refill ex-Bourbon cask kept it pale, the low-tannin American oak working slowly.

At 40% the cask has lent only a whisper of vanilla from lignin-derived vanillin; the spirit's grassy, malty lightness carries the glass. No more will ever be made. A young Littlemill.