Auchroisk 8 Years Old 2010 Cask #79 (Brachadair)

Bottled by Brachadair in 2019 as an 8 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 79 of 2010 vintage Auchroisk and distributed to the European market at high cask strength of 59.7%. Brachadair is an independent bottling project focused on small batch single cask Scotch releases at natural strength, with selections drawn from across Scottish distilleries.

Distilled in 2010 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.

Eight 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 59.7%.