Auchentoshan 17 Years Old

Bottled by Auchentoshan in 2002 as a 17 year old Bordeaux cask matured release, with 3600 bottles distributed to the European market at cask strength of 51%. The release sits in the distillery's experimental wine cask tier, presenting Bordeaux red wine cask maturation across the lighter triple distilled spirit base.

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 Bordeaux wine casks.

Seventeen years in French oak Bordeaux conditions drove distinctive wine cask character into the lighter triple distilled base. Anthocyanin pigments and tannic ellagitannins from the wine soaked staves bring red berry, dried fig, and grippy tannin, while extended contact with residual wine builds glycerol body and lactic compounds. Subtle ester transformation through gamma butyrolactone gives soft sweet wood, integrated with the spirit's underlying citrus and almond core at 51%.