The Maclean Foundation have unveiled a 34 year old single cask Auchroisk to celebrate the Maclean brothers recent world record breaking row across the Pacific Ocean and raise further funds for clean water projects in Madagascar.
The whisky comes from a single 1991 Auchroisk cask donated by Diageo and hand selected by whisky expert Charles Maclean MBE, father of brothers Jamie, Ewan and Lachlan. The cask was filled in 1991, matured in virgin oak and bottled at 44.5% ABV, with just 248 bottles released.
On the same day the brothers rowed into Cairns Marina, Australia, after a 9,750 mile, 139 day unsupported row from Lima in Peru, the cask was being bottled at Auld Bond Bottlers in Perth, neatly tying the end of their ocean crossing to the whisky’s final chapter in Scotland.
Whisky for Clean Water
This release is the fourth charity bottling from The Maclean Foundation, the family’s registered Scottish charity focused on funding clean water infrastructure, particularly in Madagascar. Previous releases have come from Ardnamurchan, Glen Scotia and Isle of Raasay, all built around donated single casks.
Funds raised from the 34 year old Auchroisk will help deliver wells and filtration systems in communities without safe drinking water. Each bottle is expected to provide clean water for life for at least one person, contributing to wider projects that will benefit over 40,000 people and build on the £1 million already raised through the brothers’ rowing challenges and earlier bottlings.
Charles Maclean has described the whisky as
“far and away the finest example of Auchroisk I have ever encountered – rich and sumptuous, sophisticated and multi-layered, entirely satisfying,”
underscoring both the age and quality of the cask Diageo chose to donate.
Auchroisk and Industry Support
Auchroisk itself is a Speyside distillery built in the 1970s, better known historically as a component in blends such as J&B than for single-malt bottlings. That makes a mature, charity focused single cask like this particularly notable.
Diageo’s Ewan Andrew, President of Global Supply and Chief Sustainability Officer, has framed the donation as part of a broader commitment to water stewardship, describing water as both whisky’s most important ingredient and a shared resource under increasing pressure and highlighting The Maclean Foundation as an example of what partnership between charities and producers can achieve.
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