Auchroisk 20 Year Old Scotch Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

If you like Scotch and have never heard of Auchroisk, don’t feel ashamed. This Speyside distillery was founded in 1973, making it one of those late 20th Century foundations. This is purely anecdotal, but I have often found that distilleries started in the late 20th Century lack both the hype of a recent publicity campaign and a gilded, antique reputation, which is why they aren’t as well known as some of their newer and older neighbors.

Further hindering the brand identity of the distillery is how the name of its in-house single malt has flipped back and forth from The Singleton to The Auchroisk to The Singleton of Auchroisk and back to The Auchroisk again. The result of all this is most folks are familiar with the place in a back-handed way, since the malt goes into J&B Blended Whisky and the distillery itself is a staging post for making that whisky: reportedly, the Highland malts used in J&B are vatted with Auchroisk at the distillery before being sent elsewhere for further vatting and marriage.

The Scotch
The coloring of this aged Auchroisk is bright gold. This being a 58.1% ABV, cask strength limited bottling, I gave it a whiff and a sip before deciding it needed a few drops of water.

I found the nose carried apples, honey, fresh-cut clover and a little toffee. The flavor had more of the honey and apple character, but was also a touch nutty on the one hand and a touch spicy and woody on the other. The balance there was very solid. Finally, the finish ran off from the sweet apple, before fading to tobacco leaf and then finally pepper. It’s a solid Speyside Scotch, but the only part of it that impressed me was the finish.

The Price
Only 6,000 bottles of this were released, and the market price is now floating at around $360.