Auchroisk 15 Years Old 2007 (SMWS 95.75)

Bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society as cask 95.75 from 2007 vintage Auchroisk, with 220 bottles distributed to members in Germany at cask strength of 56.6%. The Society identifies each release by a numerical code rather than the distillery name, with Auchroisk listed as distillery 95 in the Society's archive.

Distilled in 2007 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.

Fifteen 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 56.6%.