About Auchentoshan 23 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky (A.D. Rattray Cask Collection)
Situated at the foot of the Kilpatrick Hills in Western Scotland, Auchentoshan (pronounced Aw-khen-tosh-an) Distillery was founded in 1800 and is one of the last remaining Lowland Single Malt Whisky distilleries. The distillery is nicknamed "Glasgow's Distillery"due to its proximity to the eponymous city, and its whisky is nicknamed "breakfast whisky"due to its sweet flavor and elegant texture. During World War II, the distillery was bombed relentlessly by Germany, and much of the whisky that was being matured in its rickhouses was lost to fire or spilled into the Clyde River, which is situated adjacent to the distillery. Following the end of the war, the distillery was rebuilt and today, it remains a testament to Scottish perseverance and innovation.
Auchentoshan Single Malt Scotch Whisky is made from malted, optic barley that is gently kilned and completely unpeated. Once the barley has been malted, it is milled and mashed before being fermented in wooden washbacks made from Oregon Pine. While wooden washbacks are more expensive and difficult to maintain as compared to stainless steel washbacks, they retain a portion of the heat produced during fermentation, and ultimately produce a lighter and slightly sweeter whisky.
Following fermentation, the whisky is distilled through Auchentoshan's copper pot stills. While Scotch whisky is traditionally distilled twice, Auchentoshan Single Malt Scotch is distilled three times: first through a wash still, then through an intermediate still, and finally, through a spirit still. This extra distillation step — no other major Scotch distillery uses an intermediate still — produces a purer and more refined spirit that dramatically affects the character of the whisky produced.
Auchentoshan 23 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky was distilled on November 11, 1990 and matured for 8,550 days in a traditional oak cask. On April 9, 2014 — 23 years after its initial distillation — the whisky was bottled at cask strength.
Auchentoshan 23 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky has an aroma of ripe gooseberries, malt, toffee and candied floss. The aroma gives way to notes of sweet caramel, citrus and dry licorice on the palate, and leads to a peppery finish.
Only 130 bottles of this whisky have ever been produced. Pick up a bottle today!
About A. D. Rattray
In 1868, Andrew Dewar and William Rattray began importing French and Italian wines into Scotland. By the end of the century, their company — known as A.D. Rattray — was representing a number of distilleries in the Highlands region of Scotland, and sold malt whisky to blending houses and exporters.
Over the course of the past 150 years, A.D. Rattray acquired several smaller whisky merchants. As a result, A.D. Rattray's principal business now is bottling unusual and exclusive casks of whisky that represent the unique characteristics of Scotland's different whisky regions, and the whiskies of the Cask Collection represent the finest of these. All whiskies within the Collection are non-chill-filtered and bottled at cask strength.
About Scotch
Scotch is the most popular whisky in the world and is considered the king of them all! There are five whisky regions in Scotland (six if you count the not officially recognized Islands), and each of them produces spirits with unique properties and distinct tasting notes. (The type of grain used determents the type of the scotch.)
Malt whisky is made of malted barley, and grain whisky uses other grains like corn or wheat. Most of the time, a whisky is blended from different distilleries hence the name blended scotch, but if a malt whisky is produced in a single distillery, we get something extraordinary called a single malt.
Check out our impressive selection of scotch whiskies, find your new favorite in the Top 10 scotch whiskies, or explore our treasury of rare & hard to find scotch whiskies.
