Auchroisk 14 Years Old ChWh (Chorlton Whisky)

Bottled by Chorlton Whisky in 2025 as a 14 year old release of Auchroisk, with 255 bottles distributed to the European market at cask strength of 58.4%. Chorlton Whisky is a Manchester based independent bottler named after the Chorlton suburb, focused on small batch and single cask releases under playful illustrated labels.

Distilled 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 Oloroso sherry casks.

Fourteen 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 58.4%.