Old Pulteney 2008 Artist Collective #4.3 (LMDW)

Bottled by La Maison du Whisky, this Old Pulteney, a 12 year old coastal malt, from 2008 and bottled at 43%. Pulteney was founded in 1826 beside the harbour at Wick in the far north, and it has distilled by the North Sea for two centuries. Water comes from Loch Hempriggs, carried by a lade Thomas Telford laid in 1807.

The spirit was made in copper stills of singular shape, fed by soft northern water, and matured on the Caithness coast for a salty lift. An Oloroso sherry cask wrapped the malt in dried fruit and a nutty depth. By this age the waxy, honeyed core settles in over the brine. A gentle, unhurried maturation suits the waxy, honeyed Pulteney character. Sea air works into the warehouses, a saline thread that marks the house style. For decades this was the most northerly distillery on the Scottish mainland. It is one of the last true urban distilleries, set among the streets of Pulteneytown.

Bottled at 43%, it is rounded. The Oloroso brings salted dried fruit, fig and walnut, and vanilla and a little cream from the barrel, with a briny, oily edge. It is clean and bright, the coastal salt lifting the honey. It finishes clean, salty and bright. This is a coastal Highland malt from the edge of the country.