Pittyvaich 12 Years Old

Pittyvaich 12 Years Old is the Flora and Fauna bottling, for years the only official release from this short lived Speyside distillery. Bell's built Pittyvaich in 1974 on the Dufftown distillery site, part of a major expansion for what was then the best selling blend in Britain, and it ran for less than two decades before closing in 1993. Bottled at 43%, this 12 year old is the bottle most drinkers first met the distillery through, standing almost alone as an official Pittyvaich since 1991.

The make came from six copper pot stills, four wash and two spirit, fed by the springs at Bailliemore and Convalleys and built to echo the make of Dufftown next door. The spirit was laid into ex-Bourbon American oak, and at twelve years the cask and spirit have knit together in their integration phase, the char having stripped the youngest notes while the oak lends its first soft sweetness without overtaking the distillery's light, grassy character.

At 43% it is gentle and approachable. Lignin broken down in the charred oak gives vanilla, the oak lactones a soft coconut, and the cask frames honey, green apple and a grassy, malty note lifted by a touch of citrus. The finish is medium, clean and lightly cereal, an everyday window onto a distillery that has not produced a drop since 1993 and was demolished in 2002.