Auchentoshan
Rating: C
Region: Lowland
Owner: Morrison Bowmore (Suntory)
Founded: 1823
I do like Auchentoshan, really I do! So why such a relatively low rating? Well. The distillery is, at this moment in time the only Scottish distillery to practice triple distillation and they also take a very narrow cut at 82% and finishing at 80%, which results in a very light, delicate spirit, which exhibits a very distinctive rose petal-like character when young.
So, in my opinion it can be swamped by the oak fairly quickly and if it’s been aged in ex-Sherry butts then you can pretty much kiss any distillery character goodbye! A classic example was the 2 year old Oloroso matured bottling I tasted. I mean in just that short period of time all semblance of spirit character had gone, so what would you expect from a 10 or 12 year old Olososo matured bottling. Oh, and cutting out the use of caramel would be a good idea as well.
The best approach, in my humble opinion is to mature the spirit in refill American oak, that way the balance between the distillery character and oak should be spot on. See the ‘Classic’ and ‘American Oak’ bottlings. Possibly my favorite distillery release, was one that on paper, really shouldn’t have worked at all. The Virgin oak release in 2013 was a complete revelation and proved everything that I had said about a light spirit being swamped by new oak, completely wrong! Incidentally the owners Morrison Bowmore released a virgin oak matured bottling from one of their other distilleries, Glen Garioch, which, again on paper should have worked rather well, but perversely, in my opinion didn’t!
To get a bottling that has been matured in the correct way, you have to turn to the Independents, and although there have been some exceptional American oak aged bottlings released; there have also been some very disappointing ones. Thankfully a 2015 release from Carn Mor in their Celebration of the Cask range, restored my faith in the fact that ‘Toshan can work with sherry, as long as it’s a hogshead, that is!
Region: Lowland
Owner: Morrison Bowmore (Suntory)
Founded: 1823
I do like Auchentoshan, really I do! So why such a relatively low rating? Well. The distillery is, at this moment in time the only Scottish distillery to practice triple distillation and they also take a very narrow cut at 82% and finishing at 80%, which results in a very light, delicate spirit, which exhibits a very distinctive rose petal-like character when young.
So, in my opinion it can be swamped by the oak fairly quickly and if it’s been aged in ex-Sherry butts then you can pretty much kiss any distillery character goodbye! A classic example was the 2 year old Oloroso matured bottling I tasted. I mean in just that short period of time all semblance of spirit character had gone, so what would you expect from a 10 or 12 year old Olososo matured bottling. Oh, and cutting out the use of caramel would be a good idea as well.
The best approach, in my humble opinion is to mature the spirit in refill American oak, that way the balance between the distillery character and oak should be spot on. See the ‘Classic’ and ‘American Oak’ bottlings. Possibly my favorite distillery release, was one that on paper, really shouldn’t have worked at all. The Virgin oak release in 2013 was a complete revelation and proved everything that I had said about a light spirit being swamped by new oak, completely wrong! Incidentally the owners Morrison Bowmore released a virgin oak matured bottling from one of their other distilleries, Glen Garioch, which, again on paper should have worked rather well, but perversely, in my opinion didn’t!
To get a bottling that has been matured in the correct way, you have to turn to the Independents, and although there have been some exceptional American oak aged bottlings released; there have also been some very disappointing ones. Thankfully a 2015 release from Carn Mor in their Celebration of the Cask range, restored my faith in the fact that ‘Toshan can work with sherry, as long as it’s a hogshead, that is!
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