Auchroisk 12 Years Old 2010 Cask #811804 (Sansibar)

Bottled by Sansibar in 2023 as a 12 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 811804 of 2010 vintage Auchroisk with 234 bottles distributed to the European market at high cask strength of 60.8%. Sansibar is a German independent bottler based on the island of Sylt, founded in 2008 by Herbert Seckler with selections drawn across Scottish distilleries at natural strength.

Distilled in 2010 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.

Twelve 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 60.8% across twelve years indicates a tight cask with minimal evaporative loss, concentrating fruit over the spirit's signature light, ester forward profile.