Spruce On The Loose

SPIRIT NOTES

This unique whisky is the result of a years-long collaboration with Perthshire brewery, Wasted Degrees. Back in 2022, we sent some freshly emptied barrels to the brewery (from distilleries 5, 9 and 108). The brewery team then matured a hefty 10.4% ABV stout in the casks, brewed with fresh, locally foraged spruce tips, which can add subtle burnt sugar and candy floss character to the beer. Once the beer was ready and canned, the casks came back to us to fill with Speyside malt whiskies. The final blend is a combination of those casks and some first fill bourbon barrels, for some extra vanilla sweetness.

Sticks of calligraphy ink joined slices of dried papaya in maple syrup as autumn leaves fell upon school textbooks. Dark chocolate was found incarcerated in an old pipe tobacco box lined with crystallised spruce sap. The nose had us in a boreal forest, but the palate transported us to summer fields and fruit orchards: green apple slices mingled with dried ginger, toasted cereals and a spoonful of thick-cut marmalade in an orchardist's tobacco pouch. Water introduced nectarines and peaches, cedarwood mothballs and honey to the nose, while the palate transformed to a minted bay leaf bouquet garni, woven with nutmeg-infused orange peel, sweet chilli fruit leather and fondant.