Pittyvaich 12 Year Old - Flora & Fauna

One of Speyside’s most shortlived distilleries of the modern era, Pittyvaich opened in 1974 and closed in 1993 - the same year as Rosebank - but has never attracted the same kind of retrospective exaltation. Pittyvaich’s spirit was always designed and destined for blended Scotch, particularly Bell’s, and is sometimes less obviously lovable than some of its contemporaries. The distillery was demolished in 2002.

Pittyvaich was only officially bottled once in its lifetime, an interesting but uninspiring sherried 12-year-old Flora & Fauna edition; much better were the posthumous Special Release bottlings in 2009, 2015 and a trio from consecutive years 2018-2020. Independent bottlings of Pittyvaich are unsurprisingly rare, but some great examples exist from Cadenhead’s and James MacArthur, as well as a sensational Kingsbury bottling of a Pittyvaich sherry butt from 1974, the distillery’s first year of operation.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.