Mossburn 12yo Blended Malt Dupont Calvados Cask

The House: Mossburn
Mossburn Distillers & Blenders is best known for Torabhaig, the second legal distillery on the Isle of Skye, but its blending arm has its own ambition: sourcing exceptional Speyside stock and finishing it in casks borrowed from other great spirit traditions. The Cask Collaboration Series is where that plays out — each release built on a genuine, long-standing relationship with a specific producer, starting in 2023 with Foursquare rum casks from Barbados.
The Partner: Domaine Dupont
For the series' second chapter, Mossburn turned to Domaine Dupont, a family estate in Normandy farming cider apples since 1887, with a focus on Calvados since the 1980s under Étienne Dupont, who trained in Cognac before bringing that rigour home to apple brandy. It's a collaboration three decades in the making: Mossburn's whisky maker, Neil Macleod Mathieson, has worked with the Dupont family for thirty years, drawn to how deftly they let oak show through without overpowering the fruit.
 
The Whisky: 12 Year Old, Dupont Calvados Cask
A blended malt from Speyside single malts aged twelve years or more, initially matured in ex-bourbon casks before marrying and moving into French oak that previously held Dupont's Calvados and Pommeau. Bottled at natural cask strength — 57.2%, non-chill filtered, natural colour — with just 7,520 bottles released.
The Calvados influence draws out the heathery, floral character typical of good Speyside malt and wraps it in orchard fruit and baking spice — a profile Mathieson himself likened to autumn, all spiced baked apples and slow afternoons.
 
Tasting Notes
Colour: Bright, vibrant gold.
Nose: Crisp green apple and ripe pear lead, with honeyed floral sweetness and a creamy, buttery richness underneath.
Palate: Baked red apple and vanilla cream, softened by clear honey and cinnamon, with pink peppercorn and gentle oak spice giving it backbone.
Finish: Long and autumnal — apple crumble and toasted hazelnut fading into sultana and toffee brittle.
Serve: Neat, to let the cask strength show its depth without heat. Also makes a fine stand-in for Calvados itself in an Old Fashioned, given the obvious kinship.