4 young Auchentoshan OBs

I'll be away for around 14 days as of tomorrow I'll be heading for Alicante in Valencia, Spain. Maybe I'll find some good whiskies there? And as summer in Norway is on the withdrawal, and when I get back autumn will be arriving, so I'll finish the warm season with a vertical of some light Auchentoshans. A whisky where there are far between the highlights, as of up until now at least.



Auchentoshan NAS 40% OB Pure Malt

I believe this one is from the 80's or early 90's, the "pure malt" instead of "single malt" is nearly abolished by serious bottlers these days. Golden color. It smells extremely dry, yet sweet, sort of dark chocolate. Thick malt syrup and dark chocolate, truffles. The taste is rustic, somewhat sweet, but more than that it reminds me of rotten wood, cinnamon, ashes and mushrooms. Needs water. Water creates this burnt phenolic finish.

Tripple distilled scotch, does it work? Not here: 3



Auchentoshan 5yo 40% OB

Another one from a while back. 5 years old! I think that there weas produced some 5yo's in the 70's and 80's. Before the market cracked and many distilleries were mothballed or didn't manage to sell enough to get rid of old casks. So the nineties came with a boom and older whiskies were hitting the market at rapid pace. Now I see more and more youngsters out there, but thankfully at Cask Strength, and often released due to new distilleries on the market and good quality rather than the possibility of making good money selling young crap. Lighter color than the pure malt. It smells stearic, soap and floral. The taste is light and citrussy, much better than the nose anticipated. Light, easy, wheat, hay, grassy, a summers dram. The aftertaste is short and peppery.

A light middle of the road malt: 3.5



Auchentoshan NAS 43% OB Three Wood

Jumping fast forward to more modern times and this triple distilled and triple wood matured version. A young light lowlander with 3 different cask influences to confuse the palate. Doesn't seem to be a malt with much character, but lets not judge too soon. Dark golden brown color, some sherry cask influence? The nose is not far from the 5yo, wheat, oat meal, and some red wine, dry red wine that is. Now let's taste this one. Initial sweetness, light and fruity, strawberries and peach ice tea. The palate develops into a fino-like dryness before it turns a bit peppery and bitter (in a good way) on the finish. Water. Water kills it. Now its just like some sort of malt concentrate, malt soft drink without fizz? Weird and unpleasant stuff.

Don't add water to this surprisingly rich and complex whisky: 6.5



Auchentoshan NAS ?-2011 57.5% OB Valinch

If I'm correct, this is my first ever cask strength bottled Auchentoshan. A brand new bottling. Again one without aa age statement. I would believe that Auchentoshan were a distillery with much older malt to go around. The color is very light, bourbon cask? It smells rich, toffee pudding, yellow jello, herbal and grassy, not far from the Fettercairn 1997, but it lacks the enormous vanilla impact and slight peatiness that made the Fettercairn 1997 one of a kind, in my opinion. Given time it develops even more sweetness. The taste is extremely dry and spirity, I can't detect any real flavours, it needs water. With water it bursts into this burnt and extremely grassy thing.

It'll be a long time before I have an Auchentoshan Vertical again: 2