Annandale sits in the Scottish Lowlands, near the Solway Firth, and has the unusual distinction of producing both peated and unpeated spirit. The distillery was silent from 1924 until its revival in 2014, and these early releases carry the weight of that ninety-year gap — each bottling a proof of concept as much as a product.
This particular expression was distilled in 2019 and bottled at six years old as part of the Rare Find series. It spent its formative years in an oloroso butt before a finishing period in a barrique seasoned with oloroso for twelve months, yielding just 334 bottles. The marriage of peat and sherry is a familiar one — Islay has built an industry on it — but Annandale's version is distinctly Lowland: lighter, more transparent, less briny.
The nose gives away the dual character immediately. Sweet sherry — dried fig, raisin, dark chocolate — collides with a clean, ashy peat smoke that is more bonfire ember than iodine. On the palate, the smoke leads with a dry, slightly chalky note before the oloroso reasserts itself: sticky toffee, stewed plum, and a dusting of cinnamon. The integration between cask and spirit is impressive for a whisky this young.
The finish is medium-long, with the peat drying the close while the sherry sweetness fades slowly beneath. At six years old, it is not yet the fully formed article, but it is a compelling argument that Annandale's peated programme deserves attention.
