Old Pulteney 2008 (Signatory) (56.4%)

Signatory Vintage selected this Old Pulteney, a 11 year old from 2008, drawn from cask 1 and bottled at 56.4%. 669 bottles in all. Pulteney, founded in 1826 by James Henderson in Pulteneytown, Wick, it has been the maritime malt of Caithness ever since. Wick was once the herring capital, its fortunes built on silver fish and golden whisky.

It was worked through Pulteney's boil ball stills, fed by Loch Hempriggs, before long maturation by the sea drew in its coastal character. An Oloroso sherry cask wrapped the malt in dried fruit and a nutty depth. At this age the spirit is fresh and briny, the citrus and vanilla bright. Years in the cask round the spirit, the wax and honey deepening with age. Slow distillation in the squat stills builds the malt's rounded, waxy body. The cool maritime climate is as much a part of the whisky as the cask.

At a full 56.4% it is intense. The Oloroso brings salted dried fruit, fig and walnut, and honeyed wax and a saline lift meet light vanilla from the refill oak. The texture is oily and coating, the salt threaded through. Sea salt and honey see out a long finish. This is the maritime malt of Scotland's far north.