Old Pulteney 2008 (Signatory) (56.2%)

Single malt Old Pulteney, an independent Signatory Vintage bottling at 14 year old, from 2008, drawn from cask 9 and bottled at 56.2%. The outturn was 666 bottles. Set in the herring port of Wick on the Caithness coast, Pulteney has distilled since 1826. Inver House has made it the centrepiece of its single malt range since 1995.

Distilled in Pulteney's distinctively shaped copper stills on soft Loch Hempriggs water, the make was then aged beside the North Sea for that maritime edge. An Oloroso butt held it, sherry meeting the sea salt. Mid age brings a fuller honey and a deeper maritime note. Sea air works through the warehouse, lending a saline thread as the whisky breathes by the shore. Robert Cumming reopened the silent distillery in 1951 as demand for whisky returned. Old Pulteney is matured within sight of the harbour that gave Wick its name.

At its natural 56.2% it is deep and honeyed. The Oloroso brings salted dried fruit, fig and walnut, and the refill oak lending a light vanilla runs under sea air, citrus and salt. Beneath it run honey, citrus and a waxy weight. It closes long, salty and honeyed. This is a far northern malt shaped by sea air.