Pittyvaich 18 Years Old 1993 (Gordon & MacPhail)

This 18 year old Connoisseurs Choice from Gordon and MacPhail is a 1993 vintage matured in Oloroso sherry and bottled at 43%. Pittyvaich ran only from 1975 to 1993, so a 1993 cask captures the distillery's very last spirit, drawn from the Dufftown site Bell's built it on in 1974 to supplement the larger distillery next door and supply its blend.

Oloroso sherry maturation gives the whisky its colour and depth. The style is aged in open contact with air rather than under a protective layer of flor, building a nutty, oxidative character, and at eighteen years it has carried the light Speyside spirit into a fuller, dried fruit register while keeping the make's grassy backbone.

At 43% it is soft and nutty. Melanoidins from the Oloroso bring fig, raisin and walnut, the lignin in the oak adds vanilla, and the distillery's grassy, malty core stays present beneath the sherry. The finish is medium and savoury, a closing vintage from a Speyside distillery that was demolished less than a decade after this spirit was made. Sherry matured Pittyvaich is far less common than the plain ex-Bourbon bottlings, which adds to the interest of a final year cask like this.