Old Pulteney 1990-2002 - 12 Year Old - Hart Brothers - Finest Collection

One of Scotland’s last remaining urban distilleries, the Pulteney distillery is ensconced, as it has been since its foundation in 1826, at the corner of a street in the fishing town of Wick in the Northern Highlands. Pulteney has remained one of Wick’s greatest assets despite the fact that the distillery was closed between 1930 and 1951 after the pious residents voted to ‘go dry’, enacting a US-style alcohol prohibition.

After an ownership merry-go-round that included spells under DCL, Hiram Walker and Allied Domecq, Pulteney was acquired in 1995 by Inver House who have done an admirable job taking Pulteney distillery from a blending workhorse to an established high quality single malt brand. Stylistically, Pulteney is an old-school Highland malt with a thread of smoke and a distinctive saline edge, so older independent bottlings of Pulteney are well worth seeking out at auction.

One of the unsung heroes of the independent whisky bottling scene, Hart Brothers started life in the 1960s as independent blenders and whisky brokers, and began bottling single malts themselves in the late 1980s. Hart Brothers have often flown under the radar, but a glance at their bottling history reveals some truly outstanding single malt whiskies from distilleries including Bowmore, Macallan, Longmorn, Springbank and Glen Grant. 

Hart Brothers have a quiet tradition of getting their hands on unusual or difficult to source whiskies and releasing them with little fanfare which continues to this day, with recent releases including 1980s vintages of Littlemill and Macallan and a sherry cask of Talisker 1993. At auction, they are a bottler always worth looking out for, particularly for the magnificent 1950s and 1960s Bowmores and their superb 1960s Glenfiddichs.