Old Pulteney Port

A distillery bottling of Old Pulteney and bottled at 46%. Old Pulteney was built in 1826 beside the harbour at Wick in the far north; it stands among Scotland's most northerly distilleries. Inver House has made it the centrepiece of its single malt range since 1995.

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. A wine cask shaped it, the fruit meeting the maritime malt. With no age statement, it shows a rounded, honeyed body and a clean coastal edge. Long, cool ageing builds the oily texture Pulteney is known for. The make is clean and waxy, a style built over nearly two centuries by the sea. Caithness sits at the very top of mainland Scotland, exposed to the North Sea. The distillery passed through several owners before Inver House took it on. A faint salinity threads the honey, the mark of long coastal maturation.

At an easy 46% it is gentle. The Port cask adds plum and red berry, and vanilla and a little cream from the barrel runs under a salty maritime note. It is rounded and deep, the maritime note woven in. Sea salt and honey see out a long finish. This is a far northern malt shaped by sea air.