Auchentoshan 13 Years Old 2007 Cask Series 016 (North Star)

Bottled by North Star Spirits in 2021 as a 13 year old release in Cask Series 016, drawn from 2007 vintage Auchentoshan with 330 bottles distributed to the European market at cask strength of 55%. North Star Spirits is an independent bottler founded in Glasgow in 2016 by Iain Croucher, with the Cask Series presenting numbered editions selected at natural strength.

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 Oloroso sherry casks.

Thirteen 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 55%.