Auchroisk 24 1994 Signatory Cask Strength

Thanks to /u/georgejessel for the sample.

Auchroisk 24 1994 Signatory Cask Strength. Never heard of it? Don’t worry, neither had I.

However, I have this friend who really, really wants me to try it. It comes up on a regular basis. Not in an annoying way at all. That’s not sarcasm. Stop reading all of this as sarcasm.

Auchroisk, or the Singleton of Auchroisk if you’re nasty, doesn’t exactly come up that often on many people’s radars. Why? Because people have fewer radars these days, what with World War II ending and we need cell phones instead now.

The distillery was founded in 1974 and started selling their malt after four years. Which may be what we’re used to what with our hipster jive music and craft distilleries, but back then it caused monocles to fly everywhere.

So they were built for blending. Yes, the single malt was sold, and yes, it was big in Japan. But that was a time when it wasn’t cool to be big in Japan, so we ignore that.

What I’m saying is Auchroisk doesn’t come up over and over. So when someone recommends I move it up, I wait for a moment where my book won’t go all wacky with moving it and I move it, gosh darn it.

Let’s see how this tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Speyside

Cask Number: 3662

Vintage: 1994

Bottled: 2014

Abv: 58.3%

Colour: 2.5Y 7/8

Nose: Grapefruit, wax, lychee, hot sauce, lilacs

Light nose. I can see immediately why Japanese whisky drinkers like this (apologies for stereotyping). Lighter, fruity, a tiny bit of alcohol/heat, and some floral elements.

Water is where the hot sauce flowers show up. I’ll let you paint that commercial picture, I’ve been called a shill enough for this life.

Taste: Pineapple, oak/vanilla, lemon candy, Skittles

Fruity, light. Good summer dram on the tongue. Has that biting sugary candy flavour in spades. Probably in hearts too. Heck, maybe even diamonds.

Water brings more candy. Before that, it’s very white-wine-like.

Finish: Nectarine, oak/vanilla, ginger, caramel cake

Fruity, wine-like finish. Nice spice and caramel to round it out, which is nice.

Conclusion: Chardonnay-like. Very much so. I didn’t know what to expect, what with not really having Auchroisk too often. At the end of the day, I think this is a decent sipping dram for a warm day. Is that okay for a 24-year-old malt? Based on what I’ve been told of the decent price, yeah.

It means we won’t have many of these, however, to have a nice, fruity dram with candy throughout and an Autumnal finish, that’s okay. And this is slightly above okay, but still okay. Grab this to try new things, have something for a warm day, or serve to your girlfriends on a hot day. Or even your boyfriends too.

79/100

Scotch review #974, Speyside review #269, Whisky Network review #1531