Auchroisk 13 Years Old 2011 Cask #22074037/2011 (The Old Friends)

Bottled by The Old Friends in 2024 as a 13 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 22074037/2011 of 2011 vintage Auchroisk with 334 bottles distributed to the German market at cask strength of 55.1%. The Old Friends is a German independent bottling project focused on small batch single cask releases at natural strength, with selections drawn from across Scottish distilleries.

Distilled in 2011 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 Oloroso sherry cask.

Thirteen years in European oak Oloroso conditions drove deep sherry character into the lighter Speyside base. Ellagitannins and gallic acid from the European oak build dried walnut and grip, while oxidative aldehydes including acetaldehyde and syringaldehyde develop nutty, leathery rancio. Fermentation derived sotolon adds dried fig and curry leaf, with slow concentration of glycerol lending body, integrated with the spirit's underlying light ester signature at 55.1%.