Pittyvaich 29 Years Old 1992 Cask #3946 (Gordon & MacPhail)

This 29 year old is a single cask Connoisseurs Choice from Gordon and MacPhail, a 1992 vintage drawn from ex-Bourbon cask 3946 and bottled at a natural 49.6% in an outturn of 149. The 1992 distillation came in the distillery's final full years, Pittyvaich falling silent in 1993, which makes these late casks a closing record of a make built to feed the Bell's blend rather than to stand alone.

The cask was ex-Bourbon American oak, and across twenty nine years it carried the spirit into oxidative maturity and beyond. Gordon and MacPhail, the Elgin firm long associated with patient ageing and careful wood, let the refill oak work slowly, keeping the distillery's light Speyside character intact while the years built body, depth and a waxy texture in the warehouse.

At 49.6% it is fresh and rounded. Lignin gives vanilla, the oak lactones a soft coconut, and time lifts a citric brightness, honey and fresh orchard fruit with a chocolate edge. The finish is long and clean, a single cask drawn from the distillery's last working years and held nearly three decades before release. A quietly rewarding old Speyside from a respected Elgin bottler.