Old Pulteney 2008 vW (van Wees) (56.3%)

From van Wees comes this Old Pulteney at 12 year old, from 2008, drawn from cask 19 and bottled at 56.3%. Only 696 bottles were released. Set in the fishing town of Wick, Caithness, Pulteney has distilled since 1826. Old Pulteney is known the world over as the Maritime Malt.

Distilled on Loch Hempriggs water in stills whose shape has not changed since the 1820s, the make was then laid down by the sea for its briny, honeyed style. An Oloroso sherry cask wrapped the malt in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Around twelve to fifteen years the malt rounds into honey, citrus and sea air. Maturation by the sea is central to the house style, the brine settling into the malt. Wick's herring fleet once numbered in the thousands at the height of the boom. Slow distillation in the squat stills builds the malt's rounded, waxy body.

At a natural 56.3% it is full and oily. The Oloroso brings salted dried fruit, fig and walnut, and a salty maritime note sit alongside a touch of oak sweetness underneath. It is rounded and deep, the maritime note woven in. A long, honeyed finish carries a saline tang. This is the seaside style that made the distillery's name.