Auchentoshan 23 Years Old 1998 Cask #100964 (Wilson & Morgan)

Bottled by Wilson & Morgan in 2021 as a 23 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 100964 of 1998 vintage Auchentoshan and distributed as an event exclusive at high cask strength of 61.3%. Wilson & Morgan is an Italian independent bottler based in Treviso, founded in 1992 by the Rossi family and known for selecting and finishing single casks of Scotch whisky.

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 three 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 61.3% across more than two decades indicates an exceptionally tight cask with minimal evaporative loss, and tertiary stage ester transformation layers concentrated fruit over the lighter triple distilled spirit base.