Pittyvaich 33 Years Old 1990 Cask #HL 20631 (Hunter Laing)

This 33 year old is a single cask from Hunter Laing's Old and Rare range, a 1990 vintage drawn from Pedro Ximenez cask HL 20631 and bottled at 44.2% in an outturn of 223. At thirty three years it is among the oldest Pittyvaichs available, from a distillery silent since 1993 and demolished in 2002, its remaining casks now spread thinly across a handful of independent bottlers and Diageo's own releases.

A Pedro Ximenez cask shaped the long maturation. Pressed from sun dried grapes, Pedro Ximenez leaves a heavy residual sugar in the wood, and across thirty three years the spirit has reached an ethereal old age, the angel's share concentrating the liquid and easing the strength toward the low forties while the dark sherry slowly works into a naturally light Speyside make.

At 44.2% it is deep and soft. The residual sugars of the Pedro Ximenez bring raisin, date and a treacle sweetness, lignin lends a faded vanilla, and great age adds old wood and beeswax over a light malt core. The finish is long and rich, a rare deep aged single cask of a vanished Speyside, the sherry and the years together transforming a once humble blending malt.