Auchentoshan Distillery Cask 2008

Bottled by Auchentoshan as a Distillery Cask 2008 single cask release, drawn from cask 3835 at cask strength of 54.5% and distributed to the German market. The Distillery Cask series presents hand picked single casks direct from the warehouses at Dalmuir, available at the distillery shop or through select export markets at natural strength.

Distilled in 2008 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 Bordeaux wine cask.

Maturation in the Bordeaux cask drove distinctive wine character into the lighter triple distilled base. Anthocyanin pigments and tannic ellagitannins from the wine soaked French oak staves bring red berry, dried fig, and grippy tannin, while residual wine contributes glycerol body and lactic compounds. Subtle gamma butyrolactone development gives soft sweet wood, integrated with the spirit's underlying citrus and almond core at 54.5% cask strength.