Auchroisk 22 Years Old 2003 Cask #25023 (Alambic Classique)

Bottled by Alambic Classique in 2025 as a 22 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 25023 of 2003 vintage Auchroisk with 352 bottles distributed to the German market at high cask strength of 62.6%. Alambic Classique is a German independent bottler based in Hamburg, with focus on single cask releases at natural strength under its Alambic Classique Selection label.

Distilled in 2003 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.

Twenty two 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 62.6%.