Generously_Paul
Auchentoshan American Oak
Single Malt — Lowlands, Scotland
Reviewed
September 19, 2017 (edited May 4, 2019)
Stop number 33 on the Scottish Distillery Tour is Auchentoshan. This is my first scotch from the Lowland region so I had a certain level of anticipation and excitement headed into this review. This single malt is bottled at 40% ABV, has colorant added making it a golden straw color, and it is chill filtered.
The nose is young and lively. Full of underripe pears, green oak and toasted coconut. Malty, barley sugar sweetness, vanilla, toffee and light cinnamon. It's grassy, like a mix of fresh green grass and dry brown grass. Some creamy citrus notes, like lemon cheesecake and a little grapefruit. This really reminds me of an unpeated version of the Bowmore Gold Reef. There is a touch of green apples and honey. A little mint and anise in the background. There are some bourbony notes. It I find them to be quite muted.
Vibrant and fresh on the palate. Coconut, vanilla cream. Pears and honey, cinnamon, toffee and nutmeg. More green oak. Pepper, not much but more than I expected. Definitely a young whisky and it shows.
Light to medium bodied and on the thin side.
The finish is medium length, dry, oaky and a tad green.
There is much more personality here than I expected but I believe that to be due to its youth. The fact that it's triple distilled reinforces that belief. I would love to try the 21 year old to see what a properly matured Lowland whisky has to offer. This is a good scotch, but it's immature to a fault. I'm not sold on Auchentoshan, but neither am I condemning them based on this one sample. Speaking of which, thank you to Ryan (Lee) for providing this sample. 3.25 seems accurate, especially for the low price of $35.
Cheers
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Personally, I find the PX cask finish overbearing on the Auchentoshan Three Wood. However, most people I know who tried it really enjoyed it, especially the brandy drinkers among them. So, it is safe to say that the Three Wood is at least worth trying if you can get your hands on a sample. Cheers!
I don't have much experience with PX finishes so I may have to check out the Three Wood.
Nice review! The 21-year and Blood Oak expressions are definitely worth sampling. Their Three Wood may also be of interest if you enjoy PX cask finished whiskys.
Great review, Paul. I enjoyed this one a little more as I finished the bottle. Ryan isn't showing much interest in the sample trading lately and even gave me the entire bottle after pouring all the samples. That being said, the more I sipped on this one the better I perceived it to be. I should've saved a couple of drams and done a few cocktail trials, but I sipped on it every few days and it disappeared rather quickly. I'm still not sure it's a bottle I'd want to keep on hand just because there's so much else out there to try. Cheers.