Auchentoshan 29 Years Old 1991 Cask #2917 (Blackadder)

Bottled by Blackadder in 2021 as a 29 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 2917 of 1991 vintage Auchentoshan with 100 bottles distributed to the Belgian market at cask strength of 56.3%. Blackadder is an independent bottler founded by Robin Tucek in 1995, known for releasing single casks with minimal intervention and visible cask debris under the Raw Cask series.

Distilled in 1991 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 lifting cut to around 81% ABV. The extra copper contact and high cut strip 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.

Nearly three decades in temperate Lowland maturation drove patient extraction from the American oak. Vanillin from lignin breakdown gave vanilla, cis and trans oak lactones built coconut and sweet wood, and char layer contact produced furfural with Maillard derived caramelised sugars. Holding 56.3% across 29 years indicates a tight cask with slow evaporative loss, and tertiary stage ester transformation layers polished fruit over the lighter triple distilled spirit signature.