Auchentoshan 26 Years Old 1992 Cask #531+536 (Signatory)

Bottled by Signatory Vintage in 2018 as a 26 year old release drawn from casks 531 and 536 of 1992 vintage Auchentoshan, with 356 bottles distributed to the German market at cask strength of 50.4%. Signatory Vintage is a leading independent bottler founded in 1988 by Andrew Symington, and operates Edradour Distillery in Pitlochry alongside its bottling operations.

Distilled in 1992 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 lifting cut to around 81% ABV. The high copper contact strips sulphur compounds and fusel oils while concentrating ethyl hexanoate, isoamyl acetate, and other light esters, giving a clean spirit filled into ex Bourbon American oak.

Twenty six years in temperate Lowland maturation drove patient oak extraction across both casks. Lignin breakdown released vanillin while cis and trans oak lactones built coconut and sweet wood, with char layer contact producing furfural and Maillard derived caramelised sugars. The two cask blend smooths individual variation, and tertiary stage ester transformation at 50.4% layers polished fruit over the spirit's signature citrus and almond core.