Unkiltered Spirits | 44.6% ABV

Score: 7/10

**Very Good Indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*Classic well-matured North British from bourbon wood*

Ahoy!

If you want to know how perfectly whisky and the ocean intertwine you need look no further than the inimitable Captain Haddock for evidence.

Thundering Typhoons! Tales of The Unicorn casting across the great seas, told with gusto as he spills his Loch Lomond. Captain Haddock knows soon enough that TinTin will have him fighting for his life.

From a very young age I’ve been pulled towards the sea. Visions of navigating across the great oceans, the swell bursting and fizzing across bows and sails. The stoic trawler captain staring through spray battered windows, confidently gripping the polished wooden wheel, helming through a whirlpooling watery apocalypse as the deep welcomes a splintered demise. I reckon that endearment of the nautical world comes from TinTin. Or maybe Charlie Chalk - one or the other.

Anyway, that vision, that romantic notion of salty sailors and sandy shipwrecks is abundant in the amber world, and the Whisky Dash, where we step aboard Uncle Foosty’s Moody 31 and set sail for Campbeltown in search of fine, fine whisky, allows me the fleeting chance to role-play my childhood daydreams. Some say Rum is the drink most aligned to the sea. Rum is for pirates; they can have it. Whisky is for sailors.

An affinity with the sea has extended to a deeply rooted love of lighthouses and that monastic world of life-preservation, but that’s already been covered. I suppose it’s both the freedom to harness the wind to travel, and the learned capability that affords that freedom that has me invested. It’s knowing what to do, when the wind picks up or the tide shifts or the swell increases, to keep the boat pointing forwards.

You might not have seen it, or heard it, or picked up on it, but there’s a pretty incredible sailor in whiskytown these days, and its less Blistering Barnacles than Blistering Pace, for this sailor is a 3x Olympic Helmsman and a silver medallist to boot. They say whisky takes time. They say whisky takes patience. Well there’s no finer patience than this one.

Luke Patience’s career as a professional sailor has taken him around the world, and his Olympic silver at the London 2012 games cemented his position as a leading light in the growing popularity of sailing as a hobby, and as a professional sport.

*Luke and Stuart Bithell winning silver in Weymouth in 2012. Image from TeamGB.*

It spurred me on to take interest in the America’s Cup in 2013, where Sir Ben Ainsley, then a reserve, jumped aboard the Oracle Team USA’s AC72 foiling catamaran prototype, as replacement tactician. From losing 8 of their first 11 races, he helped bring the team glory in the dying embers of their campaign. It’s cited as one of the greatest comebacks in sailing history and secured them the “Auld Mug”.

It’s called this because it’s literally an old mug, a decorative table piece made from sterling silver. It was bought by Henry William Henry Paget, the 1st Marquess of Anglesey, in 1851 as prize for a special boat race around the Isle of Wight, as part of The Great Exhibition arranged by Prince Albert to demonstrate Britain’s technological achievements. The Auld Mug has a chequered history, which you can read about here.

As Luke prepared to head into the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, with eyes firmly set on winning gold, a worldwide pandemic made that trajectory decidedly trickier - the Olympic Games - for the first time in history, was rescheduled to the following year. His, and the entire sailing team’s path to Tokyo, was beautifully captured in the documentary “Chasing Tokyo”, which I urge you all to watch.

I first met Luke in 2021 and before long we were chatting about whisky because Luke, despite being a highly trained and highly fit Olympic athlete, loves the amber nectar. In fact, when we first met I was just getting properly into whisky and he mentioned then the desire to start his own independent brand when he departed the Olympiad, and back then it all sounded quite challenging.

How do you get into an industry with so much competition, so much choice and so many barriers - especially so in whisky’s heyday - to forge a new and exciting path in a place entrenched in cemented bonds and exclusive familiarity?

Review

North British 34yo, Unkiltered, a single ex-bourbon hogshead of 156 bottles, Distilled 14/01/1991, Bottled 12/08/2025, 44.6% ABV
£98, available at unkilteredspirits.com or online retailers.

Well it was a bit of a lovely moment this year when, at the Fife Whisky Festival I turned the corner to see Luke behind the table, pouring from four bottles of delicious whisky under a new brand - Unkiltered. It’s not surprising in the slightest, to see Luke actually achieve his goal.

Having been lucky enough to have chatted at length with a few Olympians now, the mindset to be the best athlete in the world brings with it a certain determination to succeed, whatever the hurdles. For Luke, starting an independent bottler business must have been just another target to nail, a new challenge as he transitioned away from professional sailing.

Unkiltered Spirits - created by Luke and his sister Anna Patience - a professional Graphic and Web Designer and chief architect behind the branding, social feeds, packaging and marketing. It was launched in 2023 with three bottlings: a 13yo Deanston finished in an ex-Caol Ila PX Octave (64 bottles), a 15yo Secret Highland finished in an Amontillado Sherry cask (36 bottles), and an 11yo Mannochmore finished in a Tawny Port barrel (52 bottles). Start small and build: all of these releases certainly aren’t what you’d call “the same old stuff.” Bold moves, good moves.

Now up to release No.9 - Ruadh Mhor (Glenturret), the outturns of each cask have increased to hundreds, rather than tens, but the variance of cask and pursuit of whisky as a unique spirit, remains. I tried a few of Unkiltered’s bottlings at Fife and all were impressive, with the 29yo North British a standout for me, for obvious reasons.

Having finished the bothy and with a celebration bottle to buy, I decided that it was time for me to investigate Unkiltered. Looking on their Instagram for what was current I saw they were offering the chance at some pretty cool black Glencairns with the Unkiltered logo etched in gold.

I stuck my name in the hat with the begrudging acceptance that it’s borderline pointless, but at close of play a randomiser was thrust into life, and my name was picked. If that’s not the universe telling me that Unkiltered was the right path, I don’t know what is. But which bottle?

The choice was between a Tobermory (Aros) in an Amarone Barrique - one of 369 bottles. Tobermory fell down my wanted list after a tricky sicky bottle of their 12 we opened in Campbeltown, and a general feeling that Tobermory 12 is a bit too spicy for me. Perhaps one of the 12yo Teaninich, which pulls a Woodrow’s and has gone completely off-piste with the cask play - an initial bout in ex-bourbon, then into an Oloroso sherry hoggie, then Virgin oak, then fresh Oloroso, then back into Virgin Oak for a final tango.

Some might say unnecessary fiddling, but I say gon yersel. It’s this sort of stuff that has the power to create absolutely incredible whisky, totally unique whisky, and I’m all for it. I wish more folk would get wild like this; the 9yo Woodrow’s Ben Nevis, which was parcelled out to a multitude of bloodtubs, before being brought back again to create an absolute stunner of a dram, it shows how effective fiddling can be.

But that wasn’t what I chose. I instead went for something I know (yep, hypocrite) and the value of a 34yo whisky for £98 isn’t lost on me. I know I keep beating the drum but I’m telling ye, North British, especially old North British, is a force to be reckoned with. My go-to bottler of the Northerly Brits is typically Fragrant Drops, because they know their way around grain, but the memory of that sample at Fife of the Unkiltered 29yo NB was enough to sway the final decision.

North British for me has always been a decadent sweetie dram. Even the youthful Fragrant Drops 15yo in a red wine barrique, which should’ve been a miserable soapfest, was joyously exciting. With NB I want golden syrup and ribbons of caramel laced around my stupid face. I want it all running viscously into my facehole and the thought of another potential stoater of North British to add to my catalogue of confirmed stoaters, is also what I’m here for. Finding a seam and mining it until I’m satisfied I’ve found the edges.

This will equal the oldest NB I’ve tried so far - the Fragrant Drops 15, 29, 30 and 34 have all been marvellous; the Leith Table Whisky less so, but it all adds pins to the map of a distillery’s character. The Dalry Milk 16yo illegal eagle was good stuff, and the Athletic Arms’s Duncan Taylor bottling of 14yo North British in a Palo Cortado cask has been lovely too.

But North British has always sung the heavenly song around the triple decade in refill bourbon, and with an outturn from a single ex-bourbon hogshead of 156 bottles at 44.6% ABV, this has all the hallmarks of a high-performance North British example. Price wise, £98 is familiar ground for a whisky this old from this distillery. I’d give my left arm for another bottling of the Fragrant Drops 29yo Bumblebee, which was £95.

Let’s see if this is another excellent example, or if it’s time to find other seams to mine.

Nose

Cereals - Golden Grahams, Honey Nut loops. Honeyed porridge. Orchards, well stewed - mainly apples, some pear. Cola cube. Plastic tub of candy floss from a fair, sweet toffee popcorn and caramelised nuts. Lemon posset. Lemon puffs.

Palate

Burnt sugar. Caramel - dark. Honey nut loops. Gingersnaps. Sweet, mellow. Honey porridge here too. Touch of glue. Chalky lollipops. Vanilla pods, lemon posset. Dark chocolate foam banana (great bottle note). Lashings of crème brûlée. Heathery purple and gold.

The Dregs

So this is classic NB matured for just over three decades in bourbon. We have the sweet, runny honey and porridge notes, with a lick of adhesive in there, some interesting orchards, mostly stewed within an inch of their life, and even some heathery, toffee popcorn, cereal - yum yum. The oak isn’t overbearing, and there’s literally zero off or foul notes to be found. It’s a big carnival fun fest of sweetness with hints of lemon puffs and posset.

The ABV is making this whisky a descender. It’s disappearing before my very eyes, and despite the very approachable cask strength, it still remains rich and decadent. The adhesive notes often found in grain, especially young grain, are integrated really well here too, with a bit of edge but nothing errant. It’s all purple and gold, for me. Compared to the 16yo finished in Fino Sherry, bottled by Duncan Taylor for The Athletic Arms (Diggers), which is a bit more visceral and punchy in the sharper flavour zones, the Unkiltered is just soft, sweet joy.

I think compared to previous high-age NB bottlings I’ve spent time with, there’s a lack of the syrupy, thick quality found in things like the Fragrant Drops 29yo, which was 50.9% ABV. That would take it from a delicious, sweetie of a pudding dram, as Anna calls it, into the realms of a stop-and-let-it-sink-in, sort of whisky.

That’s not a criticism or a fault at all; it just makes it a delicious session type dram that floats into the whisky belly without any resistance. The question therefore is whether a whisky that charms, rather than enchants, is worth £95.

I think the answer is best kept simple: this is 34yo scotch whisky for £95. It was stuck in a cask in 1991. Aye it’s not blowing a hole in the face where rainbows and unicorns walk through, but it’s bloody delicious stuff that lets everyone peek into the past.

For those reasons I’m delighted to have this, and I’m content with the price that was asked for it. The label didn’t over promise, and the honesty is both appreciated and beautifully presented. This bottle also has the first fully cork…cork. I’m trying to think of another that features this but can’t. Tell me if I’m missing an obvious one.

It certainly serves well for other Unkiltered bottlings: that Teaninich is giving me the side-eye and I doubt if it’ll be long before I’m heading to their website to pick one up.

Score: 7/10

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DC

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