Inchgower 10 Years Old 2009 Cask #803609 (BB&R)

Inchgower sits on the Moray Firth coast outside Buckie, a Speyside distillery in name whose malt is salty and savoury in a way the region's usually are not. Berry Bros & Rudd, the London wine and spirits merchant, selected this single cask, distilled in 2009, and released it at 10 years old. It came from single cask 803609, released for Europe.

The distillery's spirit is built for body rather than elegance, nutty and waxy with a coastal salt note unusual for Speyside. This bottling matured in an ex-Bourbon cask.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 56.7%, without dilution, the ex-Bourbon wood gives vanillin for vanilla and oak lactones for coconut, with maltol lending toffee. At 10 years the wood and the salty, nutty spirit are roughly in balance. The recorded notes run to citrus, dried hay, vanilla and malt sweetness.