Aultmore Rare Malts Selection 21 Years Old 1974

Bottled by the distillery in 1996 as a 21 year old release of 1974 vintage Aultmore distributed to the European market at high cask strength of 60.9%. This release was bottled by the distillery itself as part of its official bottling programme under Bacardi via John Dewar & Sons.

Distilled at the Aultmore distillery near Keith in Speyside, founded in 1896 by Alexander Edward and owned by Bacardi via John Dewar & Sons since 1998. The wash is made from unpeated plain malted barley with soft Auchinderran Burn water, mashed in a stainless steel full lauter mash tun and fermented for 56 hours in six larch wood washbacks. Aultmore runs the spirit through two wash and two spirit stills of plain pot still shape, with steam heated wash stills and shell and tube condensers giving high copper contact for a light, ester forward Speyside character. The spirit was filled into ex-Bourbon American oak for 21 year on site maturation.

Extended maturation drove measured American oak extraction in temperate Speyside warehousing. 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 60.9% across 21 years reflects steady evaporative loss, with American oak influence layered over Aultmore's signature light, ester forward profile.