Wm. Cadenhead are Scotland's oldest independent bottler, operating for over 175 years, but perhaps none of their bottlings are as sought after as these 'dumpy' style bottles. These were produced with brown glass and an iconic black label (white for the occasional grain whisky), with each distillery given its own letterpress font in homage to William Cadenhead's early career in the printing business.

This 12 year old Auchroisk was bottled in October 1990. Interestingly, some of this batch was rebottled the following year as part of the new Authentic Collection.

Auchroisk distillery was built by Justerini & Brooks in 1972 to provide malt for their blends. Despite this, there was an immediate focus on its single malt as well, and it was first bottled in 1986. These were vintage-dated releases, and some of the earliest to use cask finishing. This was never advertised though, and the distillery left Balvenie to take the credit for the innovation. Its single malt has also appeared many times from independent labels like this.

Colour: straw. Nose: rather closed at first nosing, with just notes of hay and wet stones as well as salt and Fanta. A bit hard I must say and somewhat chemical. Let’s give it some time… Well, there’s also some ginger tonic coming through after a moment, old cardboard… And then it gets much cleaner, finally, mostly on newly cut apples. With water: oh yes, what a pull-up! It got much, much cleaner, nicely herbal and citrusy, with also quite some vanilla crème and whiffs of fresh mint. Amazing what water does to this one. Mouth (neat): punchy, aggressive, very bitter and very lemony. Ouch! Quick, water: it improves again but in lesser proportions. It’s still very lemony and quite bitter but we have also a little tea, tangerines, cake… Much more tannins as well and a finish that’s rather long but a little dry and sort of indefinite. But what a miracle on the nose!

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