Auchentoshan American Oak Whisky Review!

At the time of writing, this is one of the cheapest single malt whiskies on the shelves in Australia. Alarm bells? Not necessarily, but there's only one way to find out...

Auchentoshan is a Lowland distillery, and is the closest distillery to Scotland's second largest city of Glasgow. Although it's technically outside the city limits, the distillery is only ten miles from Glasgow's CBD. Owned by Beam Suntory, and pumping out just under two million litres of spirit per year, their main claim to fame is that they exclusively triple distill 100% of their production. Originally founded in 1817 - but known as Duntocher Distillery until 1834 when it was sold and renamed as Auchentoshan - pronounced "Ock-in-tosh-in" which translates to "corner of the field". Interestingly, due to its strategic location on the River Clyde, it was actually the only still-operating whisky distillery to be directly damaged by German bombing raids during World War II, when one of the distillery's warehouses was bombed and subsequently exploded in 1941. Auchentoshan was completely rebuilt in 1969, and was then sold on to Morrison Bowmore in 1984, becoming part of the Suntory empire ten years later. The distillery seems to be trying to get into different markets in recent times, with a new emphasis on mixed drinks and cocktails, and more low-priced bottlings plus a couple of "Bartender's Malt" limited bottlings being released which were designed and blended by bartenders.  

There are plenty of distilleries in the Lowland region these days, thanks to the relatively recent additions of Ailsa Bay (housed within the Girvan grain spirit plant), Annandale, and tiny independently owned Daftmill. There are more on the way as well, with both Clydeside Distillery and Glasgow Distillery now producing spirit in Glasgow itself, Ardgowan Distillery on the way, and the re-opening of Rosebank Distillery well on track in Falkirk, among others like Wemyss' Kingsbarns Distillery and family-owned Lindores Abbey Distillery in Fife. The Lowlands region is known for producing a light, sweet, easy drinking spirit, and unlike many of the other Scotch whisky regions most of the Lowland producers do actually stick reasonably close to that profile, with the exception of Ailsa Bay who are actually producing a peated spirit. Although more Scottish distilleries used triple distillation in the past, famously including Rosebank, and many other distilleries such as Benromach and Benriach have released limited edition or experimental bottlings, Auchentoshan is currently the only Scotch whisky distillery to triple distill 100% of their production. Triple distillation is generally associated with Irish whiskey rather than Scotch, but much like double distillation is not exclusively used in Scotland, triple distillation is certainly not exclusively used in Ireland. The practice of course refers to the spirit having been distilled three complete times, resulting in a lighter, more refined and more "pure" and higher strength new make spirit - to an average of 81% in Auchentoshan's case. Personally, I'm generally not a fan of triple distilled whiskies, although there have been a couple of exceptions - most notably Benromach Triple Distilled and Springbank's Hazelburn Rundlets & Kilderkins. But both of those are from very characterful distilleries and were bottled at higher-than-standard strengths, plus one was lightly peated and the other was matured in smaller casks, so they're not really typical triple distilled whiskies.

This particular example, Auchentoshan American Oak, is just that. It replaced the Auchentoshan 'Classic' in 2014 as the entry-level NAS expression, but is (surprisingly) actually matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks. This one can be found retailing for as little as $55 AUD on Australian shelves, including our 10% GST, which is a very low price. There are a few other single malts at or around that price level, but not many, and for the reference of international readers, that's only $10 AUD more than we typically pay for Johnnie Walker Black Label. When you consider the amount of duty & tax that is included in that price, the whisky itself is extremely cheap. As you'd expect at this price point, it's bottled at the minimum strength of 40% ABV, and is both chill filtered and artificially coloured. To be fair, this bottling is not aimed at the hardcore malt whisky enthusiast, and at that price point it can be found in many cocktail lists in bars around the world. But I'll be reviewing it neat, as I do every whisky that is featured on this blog, so we'll see how it goes. It's also undergone a packaging and label refresh recently, so I've shown the older version below, since this is where the sample came from - the whisky itself is unchanged, however.  

Auchentoshan American Oak, NAS, 40%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Triple distilled, matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks. Chill filtered, artificially coloured.

Colour: Amber. Not as neon orange as some, so possibly less added colouring here. 

Nose: Light, woody and a little sour. Sweet vanilla, powdery apples, and freshly sawn wood. A little harsh raw spirit (acetone) around the edges. Some ripe pear, lemon-flavoured boiled lollies, and some sandalwood spice. 

Texture: Light weight, lightly flavoured and strangely woody. A little harsh and rough as well, but still easy-drinking. 

Taste: More fresh wood, vanilla and sour spirit-y acetone. Some more pear and dried lemon behind. 

Finish: Short length. And surprisingly hot for 40%. There's still some vanilla and sandalwood, and it turns a little bitter and sour with more acetone, but that's about all she wrote. 

Score: 2 out of 5. 

Notes: Nothing amazing - although I've had worse - but it's cheap, and I can see it working well for a novice or complete newcomer to single malts - which is probably a large part of the target market for this dram. The other part of the target market would be cocktails and mixed drinks, which is where it would be better suited. It's quite rough and obviously young & under-matured, but there's also an assertive woody note that I don't find particularly pleasant. It's not tasty toasted or caramelised oak notes either, it's more like freshly sawn & almost green / sappy wood, which is a little odd. In any case, at this price point this Auchentoshan is really competing with low- to mid-range blends, and is probably going to convert some low-end blend drinkers to malts. I can see low-priced Irish whiskey drinkers liking this one as well. For that matter it's also aimed at cocktails and mixing, so we do need to take that into account and lower our expectations. 

Personally though I'd rather spend the extra $10-15 for a bottle of Loch Lomond 12 year old or Glen Scotia Double Cask. They're both bottled at 46%, aren't chill filtered and provide a very good level of flavour and character for their asking prices. At this price point I'd prefer one of the reasonably priced blended whiskies that are out there, like Naked Grouse, JW Black Label or even Dimple. 

Cheers!