After the long previous post on my distillery visit from last year I felt an urge to break out the little bottle I bought on the day.

This cute little bottle is the distillery cask. A distillery cask is the single cask release only available from the visitor centre. A lot of visitor centre’s have these attractions now. At Auchentoshan the bottles are already pre-filled and sitting on the shelf. I am not a massive fan of this, I much prefer the real hands-on approach like at Bruichladdich. Below is a picture of me carefully(ish) filling a bottle directly from the cask. They then let you add the labels to the bottle before adding your own fresh stopper. That little bit of extra drama is welcome.

The Dram

The distillery cask I have is an ex Pedro Ximenez (PX) sherry cask. The whisky spent its full life in this one cask from February 2005 until October 2016. The bottling strength was 59.9% ABV and naturally this was not filtered or coloured before being hand filled into the bottle.

Tasting Notes

Colour – Treacle but cut with a red  tint

Nose – boiled sweets, cherries, raspberries, ginger

Palate – thick and chewy arrival, soaked raisins and blackcurrants

Finish – strong tea, wood tannin’s, spices with a very drying finish

Final Thoughts

On opening this bottle I am transported back to the distillery. That Auchentoshan character is there in the glass. This is a whisky to enjoy slowly and I would say requires a fair amount of water.

It is a whisky is two parts. Part one is a sharp and sweet affair. Lots of fruit and sugar and energy but then in the latter half it becomes dark, drying and luxurious.

The only mistake I made here was buying such a small bottle.