Auchroisk 26 Years Old 1991 Cask #18403 (Alambic Classique)

Bottled by Alambic Classique in 2018 as a 26 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 18403 of 1991 vintage Auchroisk with 204 bottles distributed to the German market at natural strength of 43.6%. Alambic Classique is a German independent bottler based in Hamburg, with focus on single cask releases bottled at natural strength under its Alambic Classique Selection label.

Distilled in 1991 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 ex-Bourbon American oak cask.

Twenty six years in temperate Speyside warehousing drove patient oak extraction. Vanillin from lignin breakdown gave vanilla, cis and trans oak lactones added coconut and sweet wood, and char layer interaction produced furfural with Maillard derived caramelised sugars. Settling at 43.6% reflects steady evaporative loss across the long maturation, with tertiary stage ester transformation integrating fruit and oak over the spirit's signature light, ester forward profile.