Auchentoshan 17 Years Old 1998 Limited Festival Edition (Anam na h-Alba)

Bottled by Anam na h-Alba in 2015 as a 17 year old Limited Festival Edition from 1998 vintage Auchentoshan, with 150 bottles distributed to the German market at cask strength of 50.7%. Anam na h-Alba is a German based independent bottler whose name translates from Scottish Gaelic as Soul of Scotland, with focus on single cask selections issued in low bottle counts.

Distilled in 1998 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.

Seventeen 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 50.7%.