Old Pulteney 25 Years Old (46%)

A distillery bottling of Old Pulteney, a 25 year old coastal malt, and bottled at 46%. Pulteney was dating to 1826 at Wick, on the windswept northeast coast, and it has distilled by the North Sea for two centuries. Inver House has made it the centrepiece of its single malt range since 1995.

It was run through the unusual stills, the wash still topped flat where the swan neck was cut, before resting in warehouses within sight of the harbour. Maturation in Oloroso sherry laid salted dried fruit over the coastal spirit. At this age it is polished and waxy, the sea salt folded into a rich, honeyed body. The northern cold draws out a slow, even maturation and a clean, bright spirit. The make is clean and waxy, a style built over nearly two centuries by the sea. Caithness sits at the very top of mainland Scotland, exposed to the North Sea.

At 46% it is clean and maritime. The Oloroso brings salted dried fruit, fig and walnut, and a gentle vanilla and coconut from the wood runs under a salty maritime note. It is rounded and deep, the maritime note woven in. A long, honeyed finish carries a saline tang. This is a far northern malt shaped by sea air.