1 of 88 bottles from a single bourbon barrel.
The Connoisseurs Choice series is known for independently bottling carefully selected individual casks to showcase distillery character and cask influence.
Not commonly seen, Pittyvaich shows an estery top note which rise above the classic Bell’s ‘nutty-spicy’ house style. It was bottled – from Sherry cask – as part of the Flora & Fauna range while there are occasional bottlings from Diageo’s annual Special Release programme.
Pittyvach was a utilitarian-looking distillery which was built for purely commercial purposes and was Arthur Bell & Sons’ response to the sudden leap in the brand’s fortunes in the 1970s when it became Britain’s top-selling blend and anything seemed possible.
The firm already ran the Dufftown distillery and so in 1975 erected a shed next door and installed two – eventually four – stills inside. Bell’s was bought by Guinness in 1985, with the latter firm going on to controversially purchase DCL the year after to form United Distillers. A period of rationalisation of distilling capacity followed and Pittyvaich was considered as surplus to requirements. It closed in 1993 and was demolished in 2002.
