Riverside Dram 14 Years Old Highland First-Fill Oloroso

Riverside Dram comes from an undisclosed distillery in the Highlands of Scotland. The name is a gentle hint at where it was made, but the bottler keeps the rest to itself, and that's the fun of a mystery bottling: no preconceptions, just the whisky in the glass.

Bottled by independent bottler Spinner Bluff, it was matured for 14 years in first-fill Oloroso sherry hogsheads.

Oloroso is a rich, dry sherry from Jerez in southern Spain, aged oxidatively to develop deep nutty and dried-fruit character. A hogshead holds around 250 litres, about half the size of a sherry butt, giving the spirit more contact with the wood. As first-fill casks, they are on their first use for whisky since holding sherry, so their influence is at its strongest.

Fourteen years in fresh sherry oak gives the Highland spirit a dark, rich and spiced character.