Old Pulteney Huddart (700 ml)

When Wick voted itself dry under the Temperance (Scotland) Act, Pulteney Distillery shuttered from 1930 to 1951 — the only major Scottish distillery closed by local prohibition rather than commercial failure. That defiant history is baked into the Huddart expression, named for the street the distillery still occupies in the heart of town. Warehouses sit approximately 300 metres from the North Sea, where clay-floored dunnage stores and persistent coastal humidity work salt and sea air directly into maturing casks — a maturation environment with no meaningful elevation buffer, just cold Caithness air and brine. The Huddart's character begins with unpeated Concerto-variety malted barley distilled through one of Scotland's most architecturally eccentric wash stills: a flat-topped, truncated swan neck (cut short to fit the still house ceiling) mounted on an oversized boil ball that forces heavy, oily spirit vapour back into the copper before condensing through traditional external worm-tub condensers — a combination found in only a handful of Scottish distilleries and the primary reason Old Pulteney carries unusual weight and texture for a Highland malt. The Huddart expression layers a secondary wood finish over the ex-Bourbon American oak base, adding dried fruit depth and spice to the distillery's signature saline-malty core. What sets Huddart apart within the range is that additional cask influence applied without an age statement, allowing the wood finish — not calendar time — to define the final profile. Drinking well now; the coastal salinity keeps the finish clean and long.