Auchentoshan 12 Years Old 2007 Cask #1 (Signatory)

Bottled by Signatory Vintage in 2020 as a 12 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 1 of 2007 vintage Auchentoshan with 704 bottles distributed to the German market at cask strength of 54.7%. Signatory Vintage was founded in 1988 by Andrew Symington and is one of Scotland's leading independent bottlers, operating Edradour Distillery in Pitlochry alongside its bottling business.

Distilled in 2007 from 100% unpeated malted barley with Loch Cochno water from the Kilpatrick Hills, the wash was fermented around 62 hours across Douglas fir and stainless steel washbacks before triple distillation. Auchentoshan runs every drop through three copper pot stills, with the intermediate and spirit stages collecting at around 81% ABV. The extra copper contact strips sulphur compounds and fusel oils while concentrating ethyl hexanoate, isoamyl acetate, and other light esters, giving a clean spirit base filled into a single Oloroso sherry cask.

Twelve years in European oak Oloroso conditions drove deep sherry character into the lighter triple distilled base. Ellagitannins and gallic acid from the European oak build dried walnut and grip, while oxidative aldehydes including acetaldehyde and syringaldehyde develop nutty rancio. Fermentation derived sotolon adds dried fig and curry leaf, with glycerol concentration lending body, integrated with the spirit's underlying citrus and almond core at 54.7%.