Scotland’s Wick malt named world’s best in Whisky Bible awards 2012

Old Pulteney was crowned World Whisky of the Year in Jim Murray’s 2012 Whisky Bible. It is a single malt distilled in one of Scotland’s most remote distilleries. The Whisky expert Mr. Murray named it as the world’s best whisky.

The 21-year-old single malt scored a record-equalling 97.5 points out of 100. The whisky is matured in American oak casks and bottled at the Pulteney distillery in Wick, Caithness. It took Mr Murray to taste more than 1,200 new drams before deciding on the winner. Take in for a Scotch Whisky experience in Edinburgh.

Mr. Murray is in the opinion that the award would help the financially struggling Pulteney to market its malts on the global stage and to become discovered. On tasting the 21-year-old Old Pulteney, Murray said, “It absolutely exploded from the glass with vitality, charisma and class.”

Pulteney has a chequered past in the Caithness town. The temperance laws voted to end the public sale of alcohol in 1922, a ban that stayed in place for 25 years, put Pulteney under cover. Faced with falling demand, Pulteney closed in 1930 – but reopened in 1951 after prohibition was overturned in a further vote.

US bourbons took the two runners-up places in the Whisky Bible awards. George T Stagg was named second best while 10-year-old Parker’s Heritage Collection Wheated Mash Bill picked up third.