Auchentoshan 16 Years Old

Bottled by Auchentoshan in 2007 as a 16 year old ex Bourbon release, with 4800 bottles distributed to the European market at cask strength of 53.7%. The release sits within the distillery's long matured limited tier, drawing on American oak cask stock from the on site dunnage warehousing at Dalmuir.

Distilled at Auchentoshan 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 ex Bourbon American oak.

Sixteen years in temperate Lowland maturation drove measured oak extraction. Vanillin from lignin breakdown gave vanilla, cis and trans oak lactones added coconut and sweet wood, and char layer interaction produced furfural with Maillard derived caramelised sugars. The signature triple distilled spirit base, lifted at around 81% in production and stripped of heavy sulphur and fusel oils, takes American oak character cleanly, with continued ester transformation at 53.7% layering polished fruit and integrated wood.