Why Is This Whisky Called Release 416?

Release 416 isn't a marketing number. It's an address.

Warehouse 4. Stow 16. That's the precise location in our shoreside warehouses in Thurso, Caithness, where this whisky has been resting in a first-fill ruby port pipe from Portugal's Douro Valley for the past ten years. The name is a map reference. If you visit us, you can stand in the exact spot where it lived.

It's now been sampled, deemed worthy, bottled, labelled, sampled again just to make sure, and 3,900 bottles are now ready to be dispersed. No second run.

What is Wolfburn Small Batch Release 416?

Wolfburn Small Batch Release 416 is a 10-year-old single malt Scotch whisky, bottled at 46% vol, fully matured in first-fill ruby port pipes sourced from a vineyard in Portugal's Douro Valley, one of the world's oldest protected wine regions. It is the first age-stated expression in the Wolfburn Small Batch Series. It is non-chill filtered (as always)  with no artificial colour (same again), and it was distilled, matured and bottled with us, Wolbfurn, in Thurso, Caithness. Just for you. 

What is a first-fill ruby port pipe and what does it do to a single malt?

A port pipe is a large Spanish oak cask, typically around 550 litres, used to mature port wine in the Douro Valley before we repurposed them for whisky. First-fill means the cask has never previously held whisky, and this is its 'first fill of whisky'. They comes straight from the winery, saturated with the flavour compounds of the port it carried. 

Ruby port is the youngest, freshest style, deeply coloured, with concentrated dark cherry, raisin and plum character. When a first-fill ruby port pipe is filled with new make Scotch whisky, those compounds transfer into the spirit slowly and generously. The wood breathes and contracts through the Caithness seasons; the port's character melds and becomes part of the whisky's character. A sort of Olá meets yous ken yoursel'. 

After ten years of that exchange, here's what lives in Release 416: warm ruby port and sea salt on the nose, raisins and dark cherries building behind. On the palate, luscious caramel and smooth vanilla arrive first, followed by the wine-soaked depth of a decade in first-fill port, then dates and figs and a gentle thread of oak smoke. The finish is long, warming, and port-soaked with the kind of staying power that makes you put the glass down slowly.

Why is Release 416 the first age-stated expression in the Small Batch Series?

Because an age statement should mean something. The Small Batch Series releases whisky when it's ready, not when a number on a label says it should be. Release 416 is ten years old because ten years in those particular casks in that particular warehouse produced something genuinely exceptional to share. 

Is this a good whisky to give as a gift?

A limited edition, age-stated, first-fill ruby port pipe single malt Scotch whisky from Scotland's most northerly mainland distillery, of which 3,900 bottles exist in the world. We'll leave that one with you.

Where and when can I buy Release 416?

Exclusively at wolfburn.com and via appointed distributors and independent retailers. Wednesday 22nd April. 12 pm UK time. The previous Small Batch releases sold out. This one will too.

And if you'd like to visit Warehouse 4 before or after you open your bottle, we're in Thurso, on the North Coast 500, Monday to Saturday. Come and book a tour and see where the whisky was.