Wolfburn steps out of the “Highland” box and delivers a lightly peated Single Malt.

Thurso is the northernmost town on the British mainland. The first Wolfburn distillery was born on the site in the early 1800s. But by 1872, production had ceased. In 2011, Single Malt industry veterans Shane Fraser and Lain Kerr revived the namesake far northern spirit. They broke ground in May of 2012 and had the first completed buildings by September, with production starting the following year. They haven’t looked back — developing a range of Single Malts and periodic small batch special releases.

Wolfburn is a Highland distillery with all that this entails — including the fruit forward style of Whisky-making. But the good people at Wolfburn also like to think a bit outside the box. So they released Wolfburn Morven in 2017 — a lightly peated version of their signature Highland Single Malt. Make no mistake. This is NOT an Islay peated phenol smack in the face. This is a well-crafted, fruit-forward Highland Single Malt with a light peat smoke used to dry the malted barley. It’s a rebels Single Malt with zero additives, no chill-filtering, and it’s bottled at a perfect 46% ABV.

Smartass corner:
“Morven” can refer to several things. There are three mountains with that name in Scotland. But in the case of Wolfburn Single Malt, it likely refers to a peninsula in the far northwestern Highlands.