Auchentoshan 1966, 31-year-old, (Cask # 808) / 47.1%/ 0.7l

The word Auchentoshan translates from Gaelic to mean “corner of a field”, and the Auchentoshan Distillery, based on the outskirts of Glasgow, has been producing whisky since 1823. In the late 1990s,

Morrison Bowmore, the distillery owner, has launched a small Official Distillery Archive series of single cask Auchentoshans. The one presented here is from hogshead cask 808, filled on 14th March 1966, when the distillery was owned by J.& R. Tennant Brewers, and bottled at cask strength (47.1%) 31 years later. We sometimes hear that extended maturation is not good for Lowlands single malts, well this edition completely contradicts that thesis.

Nose: perfectly balanced, summer meadow, honey, vanilla, milk chocolate, apricots, mirabelle jam, a trace of lavender, notes of ginger and fennel, wax and oak.

Taste : very mild, honey-roasted peanuts, milk chocolate, orange peel, nectarines, gooseberries, lemongrass, ginger, chamomile tea, traces of pine needles and oak.

Finish: quite long, subtly floral, with notes of honey, milk chocolate, apples, orange, ginger, anise and oak.