Daftmill 2011 Winter Batch Release 12 Year Old

It’s incredibly exciting to be able to bring you this. Daftmill’s one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland, and – like Lochlea last month, and Ballindalloch in Sep – grows all the barley for their whisky on their own farm. Of the three, Daftmill is the smallest, was founded earliest (2005), and waited the longest before releasing their first whisky (12 years). And it’s been a sensation. Early releases sold out instantly.

This is a slightly larger release of 7,500 bottles from 27 bourbon barrels, but production on Francis & Ian Cuthbert’s sixth generation family farm remains tiny, only making whisky during a few short months when farmwork is quieter, filling as few as 100 casks a year. The barley here is Publican, grown in field 43ac, harvested by John & Sandy 28-29 Aug 2009, distilled late 2011, bottled 2024. Pioneers of truly traditional whisky-making. (If that’s not a contradiction in terms.)