Living Souls 40 Years Refill Sherry Butt

Living Souls is a new independent bottler from Glasgow, founded by three whisky professionals with pedigree at Douglas Laing, Tullibardine and other respected houses. This 40-year-old blend marks their debut and tells a compelling story: it lay down to marry in 1998 in a single refill sherry butt (ex-Islay), a cask that previously housed Islay whisky and has retained its characteristic smoky imprint.

The blend contains roughly 40% malt whisky from Glenfarclas, Glen Garioch, Fettercairn and Blair Athol, with grain spirit making up the balance. What makes this bottling singular is its embrace of an anomaly: in the 1980s, the Morrison Bowmore distilleries occasionally produced whisky with a soapy note — a quirk that here is accepted not as a flaw but as part of the story.

In glass it appears deep brown with amber highlights. The nose offers old sherry, dusty bookshelves, peanut butter and almond. The palate is sweet and full — pear syrup, pineapple and peaches — with a layer of smoke from the ex-Islay cask. The finish is medium, perfumed, with liquorice and a grainy edge.