Old Pulteney 1983

A distillery bottling of Old Pulteney, aged 33 year old, from 1983 and bottled at 46%. Old Pulteney was built in 1826 in Pulteneytown on Scotland's far northern shore; it still distils beside the sea at Wick. The distillery closed in 1930 when Wick went dry, and reopened only in 1951.

The spirit was drawn off the flat topped wash still and boil ball spirit still that give the make its body, and matured by the shore, where sea air works into the wood. An Oloroso sherry cask wrapped the malt in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Decades leave it deep and oxidative, honeyed wax and dried fruit with a faint brine. Years in the cask round the spirit, the wax and honey deepening with age. Sea air works into the warehouses, a saline thread that marks the house style. For decades this was the most northerly distillery on the Scottish mainland. It is one of the last true urban distilleries, set among the streets of Pulteneytown.

At 46% it is supple and honeyed. The Oloroso brings salted dried fruit, fig and walnut, and a briny, oily edge sit alongside soft vanilla from the cask. It is clean and bright, the coastal salt lifting the honey. Salt, honey and oak draw out the close. This is the salty, honeyed signature of Wick.