Auchentoshan 24 Years Old 1999 Cask #4 (Signatory)

Bottled by Signatory Vintage in 2024 as a 24 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 4 of 1999 vintage Auchentoshan with 689 bottles distributed globally at cask strength of 55.6%. Signatory Vintage was founded in 1988 by Andrew Symington and is one of Scotland's leading independent bottlers, also operating Edradour Distillery in Pitlochry.

Distilled in 1999 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 Oloroso sherry cask.

Twenty four 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, leathery rancio. Fermentation derived sotolon adds dried fig and curry leaf, and slow concentration of glycerol contributes body, integrated with the spirit's underlying citrus and almond core at 55.6%.