Auchroisk 11 Years Old 2009 Cask #804341 (Blackadder)

Bottled by Blackadder in 2021 as an 11 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 804341 of 2009 vintage Auchroisk with 314 bottles distributed to the European market at cask strength of 56.3%. Blackadder is an independent bottler founded by Robin Tucek and the late John Lamond, known for its Raw Cask range presented without chill filtration or colour adjustment, deliberately including cask sediment.

Distilled in 2009 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 56.3% across eleven years reflects steady evaporative loss, with American oak influence layered over the spirit's signature light, ester forward profile.