Twenty-five years is a considerable stretch for any Scotch, and in a distillery as exposed to the elements as Pulteney it is a genuine test of cask selection. The Wick distillery's warehouses sit close enough to the North Sea that the prevailing weather permeates the wood, and spirit kept there for this length of time acquires a character distinct from inland Highland malts.
The 25 Year Old is drawn from a marriage of American oak ex-bourbon and Spanish oak ex-sherry casks, bottled at 46% and without chill filtration. It succeeded earlier editions of the 21 and slots above it in the core range as the distillery's prestige statement. The sherry influence is pronounced — figgy, leathery, with the deep toffee notes one associates with long oloroso maturation — but the spirit's own waxy texture and coastal edge survive intact.
Pulteney's stills, with their distinctive flat tops (a result of being too tall for the still house when originally installed and cut down to fit), are often credited with the oily, full-bodied character of the new make. At twenty-five years that body is exactly what the oak needs to push against. The result is patient and complex, a whisky that rewards being left alone in the glass.
