Auchroisk 9 Years Old 2013 Cask #822438 (Pendulum Spirits Ltd)

Bottled by Pendulum Spirits Ltd in 2023 as a 9 year old single cask release, drawn from cask 822438 of 2013 vintage Auchroisk with 309 bottles distributed to the German market at high cask strength of 58.5%. Pendulum Spirits is an independent bottler focused on small batch single cask releases at natural strength, with selections drawn from across Scottish distilleries.

Distilled in 2013 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.

Nine years in temperate Speyside warehousing developed primary ester profile alongside measured 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. Holding 58.5% across nine years indicates a tight cask with slow evaporative loss, concentrating fruit over the spirit's signature light, ester forward profile.