Burnadjacent 1989 36 Year Old, Little Brown Dog

Our old nemesis, the teaspoon. In Scotch whisky, a small amount of another malt can be added to a cask to prevent the whisky from being sold under its original distillery name. In this case, the spirit is understood to be Balvenie, traditionally referred to in the trade as Burnside.

Unfortunately, the use of that name in glass brings its own complications, so Little Brown Dog has opted for the considerably more tongue-in-cheek Burnadjacent instead.

This whisky was distilled in 1989 and matured for 36 years, allowing the spirit the kind of extended maturation that simply cannot be replicated by adding more active oak. With enough time and a suitably restrained cask, the character of a well-aged malt can develop in ways that shorter maturation simply can't reproduce.

The label continues Little Brown Dog's fascination with cars, taking inspiration from memories of David Mair and others travelling around Speyside in a cream-over-tan Balvenie-branded Morgan sports car. The solution here is rather more attainable: a 30-year-old rally car standing in for the hand-built Morgan.