Auchroisk 11 Years Old 2008 Cask #12 (A.D. Rattray)

Bottled by A.D. Rattray in 2019 as an 11 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 12 of 2008 vintage Auchroisk with 305 bottles distributed to the Italian market at cask strength of 57.4%. A.D. Rattray is a family run Scottish independent bottler founded in 1868 by Andrew Dewar Rattray, now run by the Morrison family with focus on single cask releases at natural strength.

Distilled in 2008 at the Mulben distillery built by Justerini & Brooks in 1974, the wash was made from 100% unpeated malted barley with soft Dorie's Well water and fermented for around 53 hours in stainless steel washbacks. Auchroisk runs the spirit through four wash and four spirit stills with constricted lyne arms, encouraging high reflux that returns heavier compounds back to the pot. Shell and tube condensers give further copper contact, stripping sulphur compounds, with the spirit collected at around 70% ABV and filled into a single ex-Bourbon American oak cask.

Eleven years in temperate Speyside warehousing developed primary ester profile alongside measured oak extraction. Vanillin from lignin breakdown gave vanilla, cis and trans oak lactones added coconut and sweet wood, and char layer interaction produced furfural with Maillard derived caramelised sugars. Holding 57.4% across eleven years indicates a tight cask with slow evaporative loss, layering polished fruit over the spirit's signature light, ester forward profile.