Auchentoshan 9 Years Old 2014 Cask #DL 17384 (Old Particular)

Bottled by Douglas Laing in 2023 as a 9 year old single cask in the Old Particular range, drawn from cask DL 17384 of 2014 vintage Auchentoshan with 203 bottles distributed to the Belgian market at high cask strength of 59%. Old Particular is Douglas Laing's flagship single cask programme, presenting natural strength releases at non chill filtered, natural colour presentation.

Distilled in 2014 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 59% across nine years indicates a tight cask with minimal evaporative loss, and ester development layers fresh fruit over the lighter triple distilled spirit base.