Old Pulteney 2008 (Signatory) (56.8%)

Signatory Vintage bottled this Old Pulteney single malt at 14 year old, from 2008, drawn from cask 24 and bottled at 56.8%. The outturn was 663 bottles. Set in Pulteneytown on Scotland's far northern shore, Pulteney has distilled since 1826. The distillery closed in 1930 when Wick went dry, and reopened only in 1951.

The spirit was drawn off the flat topped wash still and boil ball spirit still that give the make its body, and matured by the shore, where sea air works into the wood. Maturation in Oloroso sherry laid salted dried fruit over the coastal spirit. Around twelve to fifteen years the malt rounds into honey, citrus and sea air. Coastal warehousing gives the malt its signature salty, maritime lift. Wick built its fortune on herring and whisky, the silver and the gold of the north. Everything once moved by sea here, barley in and casks out across the North Sea.

At a natural 56.8% it is full and oily. The Oloroso brings salted dried fruit, fig and walnut, and salt spray and beeswax sit alongside soft vanilla from the cask. A beeswax and a saline tang give it real body. A long, honeyed finish carries a saline tang. This is the salty, honeyed signature of Wick.