The history of Wolfburn can be dated back to 1821. The original Wolfburn distillery was located 350 metres from its current site in Thurso, Caithness. Run by the Smith family, the distillery was at one point the largest in Caithness, producing 28,056 “Total Gallons of Proof Spirit” during 1826 (roughly 125,000 litres). Production ceased in the 1850's for reasons that are now lost to the annuls of time. The distillery was revived in 2012 and sited in Henderson Park alongside the Wolf Burn (from which the distillery gets its name).
Earlier in the year, Highland distillery Wolfburn added its third permanent expression to its range in the form of the peated Morven. Now, as we head into the Autumn months, the Thurso distillery is back with a fourth entry – Langskip. The whisky is the distillery’s highest strength general release to date, clocking in at 58% ABV – considerably more pokey than the 46% utilised for the core range Northland, Aurora and Morven releases.
Wolfburn have some pretty big shoes to fill - their own. Blasting onto the scene in 2016, their initial two general releases: Handcrafted (now renamed Northlands) and Aurora were both impressive and belied the commonly held assertion that older is better. Now as word of Wolfburn’s quality starts to spread, the distillery is back with its first 2017 bottling, the 2nd release in the Kylver Series.
Wolfburn's core bottlings of Northland and Aurora are soon to be bolstered with the new peated expression Morven. In advance of that the alchemists from Thurso are presenting us with 'Wolfburn No.128' - their first small batch whisky. Matured in smaller casks from a lightly peated spirit, No.128 provides us with our first proper look at a smokier Wolfburn.