Pulteney 2007-2020 - 12 Year Old - Carn Mor - Celebration Of The Cask - Single Cask 43567

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.

Càrn Mòr is a series of independent bottlings from Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers (MSWD), the family company run by Brian Morrison, the former chairman of Morrison Bowmore, and his son Jamie Morrison. The company also owns the Old Perth blended whisky brand and commenced distillation at their new Lowland distillery Aberargie in 2017.

The first Càrn Mòr whiskies were bottled in 2007/8 and the Morrisons keep up a prolific bottling schedule, with several hundred Càrn Mòr releases to date. As of 2023, Càrn Mòr have two main ranges, the Càrn Mòr Strictly Limited series of youngish small batch whiskies bottled at 47.5%, and the Càrn Mòr Celebration of the Cask series, the majority of which are much older single cask whiskies bottled at cask strength.