Auchentoshan 22 Years Old 1998 Cask #100157 (Lady of the Glen)

Bottled by Lady of the Glen in 2020 as a 22 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 100157 of 1998 vintage Auchentoshan with 132 bottles distributed to the European market at cask strength of 56%. Lady of the Glen is the independent bottling label of Hannah Whisky Merchants, founded by Gregor Hannah and based in Bathgate, with releases focused on single casks at natural strength.

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 a single ex Bourbon American oak cask.

Twenty two years in temperate Lowland maturation drove patient 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. Holding 56% across more than two decades indicates a tight cask with slow evaporative loss, and tertiary stage ester transformation layers polished fruit over the spirit's signature citrus and almond core.