Allt-a-Bhainne 22 Years Old 2000 Cask Strength Sister (Signatory CSC)

Distilled in 2000 and bottled by Signatory Vintage in 2022 under the Cask Strength Collection imprint, this is a 22 Years Old Allt-a-Bhainne at 52.3% ABV from Oloroso sherry maturation. The release is one of 689 bottles, a sister selection to the 51.6% release from the same vintage and bottling year.

Allt-a-Bhainne ferments malted barley for 48 to 50 hours on Mauri liquid yeast in closed stainless steel washbacks, then double distills through two copper wash stills and two copper spirit stills with steam heating and shell and tube condensers. The short Speyside ferment produces a clean malt forward spirit built as a blend filler for Chivas Regal, Passport and 100 Pipers. New make is reduced with Rowantree Burn water and tankered to Keith for cask filling and maturation, since the distillery holds no warehousing on site.

Oloroso sherry maturation drives the spirit through rancio chemistry, where slow polyphenol and aldehyde oxidation during prior sherry contact generates the dried fruit, leathery and nutty register typical of long sherry contact. Against the lighter Allt-a-Bhainne distillate the sherry contribution leads. Twenty two years of Oloroso interaction with the lighter spirit produces a deeply settled profile, with rancio chemistry fully expressed and the developed dried fruit and nutty register forming the dominant architecture.