Old Pulteney 25 Year (700 ml)

In 1930, Wick voted itself dry under the Temperance (Scotland) Act, forcing Pulteney Distillery to shutter for 21 years — the only major Scottish distillery ever closed by local prohibition rather than commercial failure. That defiant history frames a whisky that has always operated on its own terms. Pulteney Distillery sits on Huddart Street in the coastal town of Wick, Caithness, its dunnage warehouses with clay floors positioned approximately 300 metres from the North Sea. Persistent cold humidity and salt-laden air penetrate the casks across a quarter-century of maturation, driving a saline, briny edge that no inland Highland distillery can replicate. The wash still's truncated flat-top swan neck — cut short to fit the still-house ceiling — and its oversized boil ball force heavier, oilier spirit into the cut; worm-tub condensers (used by only a handful of Scottish distilleries) preserve sulphur-adjacent weight and texture that column or shell-and-tube condensing would strip away. The 25 YO rests in approximately 90–95% ex-Bourbon American oak refill casks alongside 5–10% ex-Oloroso Sherry Spanish oak, bottled at 46% ABV without reduction to 40%. What distinguishes this expression within the range is sheer time: two and a half decades of coastal oxidation in Caithness dunnage warehouses produce a depth of waxy, dried-fruit integration that the 18 and 21 YO expressions cannot achieve. Drinking window is open now and will hold comfortably through the mid-2030s.