Auchentoshan 24 Years Old – Noble Oak

Bottled by Auchentoshan in 2015 as a 24 year old Noble Oak release, distributed across global travel retail at cask strength of 50.3%. The release sits in the distillery's long matured premium tier, presenting Oloroso sherry matured Lowland single malt with the Noble Oak naming nodding to the European oak hogsheads central to the maturation.

Distilled at Auchentoshan from 100% unpeated malted barley with Loch Cochno water from the Kilpatrick Hills, the wash was fermented around 62 hours in 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 directly into Oloroso sherry casks.

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, with slow concentration of glycerol lending body, integrated with the spirit's underlying citrus and almond core at 50.3%.