Built in 1896 by Alexander Edward near the town of Keith, Speyside, Aultmore has long been used for blends. Popular in this role with its successive owners—Distillers Company Limited (now Diageo) until 1988, and John Dewar & Sons, who briefly owned the distillery from 1923 to 1925—Aultmore's range of single malts was not launched until 2014, which is a shame as the slow distillation in small stills with downward lyne arms gives the whisky a wonderfully aromatic and strong character.

An Aultmore single cask (#3067) distilled in 1989 and bottled by John McDougall for the Whisky Life series after 13 years’’ maturation in a bourbon cask. John McDougall was a key figure in the whisky industry, working for almost 20 years at distilleries such as Springbank, Laphroaig and Balvenie. In 2002, he launched a series of single malts, often bottled from single casks, under the name John McDougall’’s Whisky Life Series. A limited edition of 156 bottles.