Auchroisk 13 Years Old 2008 Cask #806196 (Pendulum Spirits Ltd)

Bottled by Pendulum Spirits Ltd in 2021 as a 13 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 806196 of 2008 vintage Auchroisk with 264 bottles distributed to the European market at high cask strength of 59%. Pendulum Spirits is an independent bottler focused on small batch single cask releases at natural strength, with selections drawn from across Scottish distilleries.

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.

Thirteen years in temperate Speyside warehousing drove 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 59% across thirteen years indicates a tight cask with minimal evaporative loss, and continued ester transformation layers concentrated fruit over the spirit's signature light, ester forward profile.