Auchroisk 24 Years Old 1989 Wood Range Sherry Cask (Cadenhead’s)

Bottled by Cadenhead's in 2014 as a 24 year old Wood Range Sherry Cask release from 1989 vintage Auchroisk, with 504 bottles distributed to the German market at cask strength of 56.5%. Cadenhead's was founded in Aberdeen in 1842 and is the oldest independent bottler in Scotland, now operated by J&A Mitchell of Springbank Distillery, with the Wood Range presenting sherry cask releases at natural strength.

Distilled in 1989 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.

Twenty four 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 56.5%.