WhiskyNotes » Auchentoshan

Auchentoshan 1978

Ruben — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 02:24:26 +0000

This market house Auchentoshan 1978 was created in 1997 by blending
13 casks. Half of them were distilled on 04/09/1978, the other half on 21/11/1978. Recently a new 1978 vintage was bottled (30 years old).

Auchentoshan 18 yo 1978
(58,8%, OB 1997, 13 casks
#295x + #436x + #437x)

Nose: fresh malt and sweet gooseberries. Buttercups and dandelions. Marzipan. Quite intense, with a spicy prickle and fresh oak. A little caramel. There’s a lovely dusty / leathery element as well. Mouth: punchy with a rather oily mouthfeel. Great mixture of toffee, dark honey and traces of smoke. Fruit tea. Roasted nuts. Orange peel, spices, oak, vanilla… quite complex. Finish: malty and spicy, with leather and hints of lemon.

Not the usual Lowlands whisky, with a bold profile and uncommon (oily, smoky, leathery) elements.
A bit too strong when neat, but really nice with a drop of water.

Score: 87/100

Auchentoshan 1991 (Coopers Choice)

Ruben — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Coopers Choice is a brand of the Vintage Malt Whisky Co, an independent bottler founded in 1992. They’re mostly known for Finlaggan and Ileach, their undisclosed Islay malts.

The Coopers Choice range is a selection of single cask bottlings covering all ages and all regions of Scotland.

Auchentoshan 17 yo 1991
(43%, Coopers Choice 2009)

Nose: grassy and slightly cheesy. Mashed potatoes. Not really fruity, although it develops on nice lemon candy. A few hints of linseed oil. Too bad there’s not enough freshness to make the citrus stand out. Mouth: very sweet, lemon candy again. Hints of peppermint gum and pepper. Develops on grainy notes, like a flavoured vodka. Finish: sweet, grainy and slightly grassy.

Well, it didn’t impress me at all. One for real Auchentoshan fans perhaps? Around € 50.

Score: 56/100

Auchentoshan 1991 (Malts of Scotland)

Ruben — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:00:09 +0000

Auchentoshan is a lowland distillery, now part of the Japanese Suntory group. This 1991 vintage was finished in a red wine cask by Château Montrose, a winery in the Haut Médoc region (Bordeaux, France). They produce highly regarded wines with notes of cassis and vanilla. As a result of this, the whisky has a rather uncommon pink hue.

Auchentoshan 18yo 1991 (59,3%, Malts of Scotland 2009, cask #492, 301 btl.)

Nose: a lot of wine influence. The grapes are not well integrated with the whisky, so it seems. Quite dry and mono-dimensional. Also rather eggy, sulphury notes. Not attractive or simply not my cup of tea (although there are interesting notes of cassis and red berry jam). Mouth: starts off very sweet (raisins, sweet malt, muesli). Very hot as well (59,3%) but water immediately drowns the flavours. Too bad. Oranges maybe? Getting slightly tannic and bitter in the end (gin tonic, cloves). Finish: still bitter. Some chocolate.

Different, that’s for sure. But also one of the least appealing drams I’ve tasted lately. The delicate lowlands character is suffocated by the wine. Well, I guess not everything Malts of Scotland touches is gold. Around € 75.

Score: 68/100

Auchentoshan Three Wood

Ruben — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:00:48 +0000

Auchentoshan is a lowland malt and currently the only triple distilled whisky in Scotland (well, apart from Hazelburn and other ‘experiments’ outside of the regular ranges). They’ve had some extra publicity lately due to their new brand identity. The design of the bottles improved greatly, and the range of expressions was revised: the 10 year old was renamed ‘Classic’ and an 18 year old was added to the line.

The Three Wood is matured in different casks: at least ten years in bourbon wood, one year in oloroso and six months in the sirupy Pedro Ximénez.

Auchentoshan Three Wood
(43%, OB 2008)

Nose: it’s possible to distinguish the different casks. There is clear sherry influence with notes of raisins, plums, dates and oranges. Bourbon associations as well. Some vanilla, apricot, apple and cinnamon. Toffee. Tobacco. In a way, it’s interesting to have the different influences, but on the other hand, it doesn’t work together as a whole. Too much oak to be refined. Mouth: sweet, lots of toffee and chocolate. Caramel and nuts. Quite “dark” with some burnt sugar and even some rubber (although it’s not unpleasant). Liquorice as well. The finish shows some bourbon-type flavours: cedar and pine wood, mint and spices. With water: lemon grass. Quite dry.

Sometimes I don’t mind unbalanced whiskies, because they dare to be different and tend to have a unique character. But this is a bit too rough and completely overpowers the Lowland character. Around € 45.

Score: 76/100.