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WOLFBURN 12 YEAR OLD SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
The Whiskey Lab's First Distillery Collaboration
VETERAN OWNED. BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC.
The Whiskey Lab has always championed independent bottlers. This release marks something entirely new: our first collaboration directly with a distillery. Wolfburn, Scotland's most northerly mainland distillery, sits in Thurso at the very tip of Caithness. It is a next-generation operation built on centuries-old tradition, and it is veteran owned.
This cask was hand selected by the owner of Wolfburn and the founder of The Whiskey Lab. Two veterans. Two countries. One cask. This is believed to be the oldest Wolfburn single malt ever brought to America.
Wolfburn was originally founded in 1821 and was once the largest distillery in Caithness. It closed in the 1850s and sat silent for over 150 years before being revived in 2013 on the same site, using water from the same source: the Wolf Burn river. That makes it one of Scotland's genuine next-generation distilleries. Modern equipment, traditional approach, no shortcuts.
This 12-year-old single cask spent its entire life in a quarter cask that started as a bourbon barrel, did its first fill at a distillery on Islay, then was filled with Wolfburn's Highland spirit. Twelve years in that small cask. The quarter cask format means roughly 30% more wood contact per litre than a standard barrel, so twelve years here delivers the oak depth you'd normally wait twenty for. The result is a Highland single malt that drinks like a far older bourbon-cask Scotch: oak-led, spiced, structured, and long.
Bottled at natural cask strength of 53.9%. No colouring. No chill filtration. Exactly as it came from the cask. 130 bottles.
Distillery Profile: Wolfburn
- Originally founded 1821 in Thurso, Caithness. Revived in 2013 on the same site.
- Scotland's most northerly mainland distillery, operating at the very tip of the Scottish Highlands.
- Veteran owned and operated.
- Water source: the Wolf Burn river, the same water used over 200 years ago.
- Small-scale production with a focus on quality over volume. One of Scotland's true next-generation distillers.
Cask Profile: Ex-Islay Quarter Cask
This is a 2nd fill bourbon quarter cask whose first fill was at a distillery on Islay. The Islay spirit took the first, most active years of the wood. What it left for Wolfburn was a cask with its sharpest edges already gone.
Quarter casks hold roughly 125 litres compared to 200 for a standard barrel. The smaller format increases the surface-to-volume ratio, drawing more character from the wood over 12 years. The result: clean Highland spirit and concentrated oak, with a savoury depth underneath that the cask's first life left behind. Oak and spice, not smoke.
Tasting Notes
Nose
Dignified candy. Pear drops, boiled sweets, that fresh sugary lift you get from good Highland spirit in 1st fill bourbon wood. It reads as sweet alcohol at first, then it's fruit. Clean and pleasant throughout.
Palate
Classic sweet single malt that bites with pleasure. A tingle across the tongue tells you it's cask strength and won't hold back. Water doesn't need to be added. Old oak, almost chocolatey, cocoa with the wood still in it. Vanilla underneath, but more spice than vanilla. Clove and cinnamon, not custard. Twelve years in a quarter cask is a lot of wood per litre, and it shows: dark, toasted, structured, never bitter.
There's a layer in the middle I can't name yet. Savoury. A bit dark.
Finish
Long. Builds for the first forty seconds instead of fading. A minute in, still fully there. A minute twenty, it's the moment after a hard candy is gone and the taste is still in your mouth. Three minutes later the tingle is still on the tongue, slowly going. Sweet, but not young-bourbon-cask sweet. Older than that. Dignified, so much so that I'm expecting to hear "Now you're a real man" from my father after enjoying this dram.
Tasting notes by Jay Roberts, founder of The Whiskey Lab, from the cask sample, September 2026.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | The Whiskey Lab's first distillery collab bottling |
| Distillery | Wolfburn (Thurso, Caithness, Scotland) |
| Style | Single Malt Scotch Whisky |
| Region | Highland |
| Age | 12 Years |
| ABV | 53.9% (Cask Strength) |
| Volume | 700 ml |
| Maturation | 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Quarter Cask (1st Fill on Islay) |
| Distilled | 2014 |
| Bottled | 2026 |
| Outturn | 130 Bottles |
| Non-Chill Filtered | Yes |
| Natural Colour | Yes |
| Estimated Arrival | November 2026 |
The Whiskey Lab's Quality Commitments
- Single Cask: One cask, one bottling. Every bottle from this release comes from the same cask.
- True Cask Strength: Bottled at 53.9%, exactly as it came from the wood.
- Natural Colour & Non-Chill Filtered: Nothing added, nothing taken away.
