Navigator was launched in 2013 as a travel-retail exclusive for Old Pulteney, part of the Wick distillery's long-running effort to plant its maritime flag in the duty-free aisles. The name nods to the distillery's self-styled identity as the Genuine Maritime Malt and to Wick's nineteenth-century status as the busiest herring port in Europe, from which boats crewed by thousands of men worked the North Sea each summer.
The expression is a no-age-statement malt built from a marriage of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, bottled at 46% and non-chill-filtered. It sits below the 12 Year Old in price but above it in cask complexity, aiming at travellers who want something a little richer than the entry-level Pulteney without committing to the older expressions.
Old Pulteney was founded in 1826 by James Henderson, closed in 1930, and did not reopen until 1951 — a gap that the distillery has always worn as a badge rather than a scar. The onion-shaped wash still, with its sawn-off neck, gives the spirit its distinctive fruity weight, and Navigator leans on that base character rather than hiding it under heavy sherry.
As airport malts go, this is an honest one: no caramel colouring, a sensible strength, and a straightforward marriage of two familiar cask types. It will not rearrange anyone's understanding of Old Pulteney, but it delivers the house style cleanly, which is more than some travel-retail bottlings manage. The Navigator name fits the bill, even if the journey it implies is a relatively gentle one between bourbon barrel and sherry butt rather than across the open North Sea.
