Auchentoshan 9 Years Old 2013 Cask #3355 (van Wees)

Bottled by van Wees in 2022 as a 9 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 3355 of 2013 vintage Auchentoshan with 222 bottles distributed to the European market at high cask strength of 60.1%. van Wees is a Dutch independent bottler and retailer founded in Amersfoort in 1932, operating the Whisky Import Nederland bottling label alongside its retail operations.

Distilled in 2013 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 ex Bourbon American oak cask.

Nine years in temperate Lowland maturation drove primary oak extraction. Vanillin from lignin breakdown gave fresh vanilla, cis and trans oak lactones added coconut and sweet wood, and char layer interaction produced furfural with Maillard derived caramelised sugars. Holding 60.1% across nine years indicates a tight cask with minimal evaporative loss, and ester development layers fresh fruit over the lighter triple distilled spirit base.