Auchentoshan 25 Years Old 1995 Cask #HL 17809 (Edition Spirits)

Bottled by Edition Spirits in 2021 as a 25 year old single cask release, drawn from cask HL 17809 of 1995 vintage Auchentoshan with 134 bottles distributed to the German market at cask strength of 51.7%. Edition Spirits is a Singapore based independent bottler associated with the First Editions team, with the HL cask reference indicating prior origin in the Hunter Laing inventory.

Distilled in 1995 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. Auchentoshan triple distils every drop through three copper pot stills, with the intermediate and spirit stages lifting cut to around 81% ABV. The extra copper contact strips sulphur compounds and fusel oils while concentrating light esters such as ethyl hexanoate and isoamyl acetate, giving a clean spirit base filled into a single ex Bourbon American oak cask.

A quarter century 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 51.7% across 25 years indicates a moderately tight cask with steady evaporative loss, and tertiary stage ester transformation integrates fruit and oak into a polished single cask profile.