Auchroisk The Managers’ Choice 10 Years Old 1999

Bottled by the distillery in 2009 as part of The Managers' Choice series, drawn from cask 11323 of 1999 vintage Auchroisk with 642 bottles distributed to the European market at high cask strength of 60.6%. The Managers' Choice was a Diageo OB series released in 2009 presenting single cask selections from across its distilleries, hand picked by each site's distillery manager. It marks one of the rare OB Auchroisk single malts outside the discontinued Singleton brand.

Distilled in 1999 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. Shell and tube condensers give further copper contact, stripping sulphur compounds, with the spirit collected at around 70% ABV and filled into a single European oak Oloroso sherry cask for on site maturation.

Ten 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 develop nutty, leathery rancio. Sotolon adds dried fig and curry leaf, with concentrated glycerol lending body. Holding 60.6% across ten years indicates a tight cask with minimal evaporative loss.