Tastes

Super sweet. Heavy fruit, honey, baking spice, creaminess, some oakiness. Strawberry, blackberry, vanilla, cherry. If im feeling a rich, sweet, almost dessert whisky, ill pour some of this.

The most bourbony scotch I’ve had. Taste oak varnish, medicinal cherry, some caramel, and a tiny hint of earthy peat with maybe some leather. My favorite notes in scotch are heavy meaty peat and dark fruity sherry. Neither are in this. Its still a well made scotch, but not really my thing

Probably one of my favorites, if not my favorite. Opens with a little oily, super meaty peaty-ness. Heavy bbq notes and some medicinal notes. Theres some really smooth fruitiness here though that is new with this expression. Stewed plums, figs, and maybe blackberries swirl around with the heavy peaty smoke. Its a nice comfort whisky, with all the Islay character I love, married nicely with some sweet fruits that pull off a really beautful whisky.

The most agressive scotch I’ve had. I was too early along in my scotch journey when I tried this. It beat me up pretty good. But I really loved it. Really oily, with a super meaty, peaty character to it. Tastes like thick cut bacon that been charring on a charcoal grill for a while. It’s a pretty spiky whiskey, I got some sherried sweetiness from it, but my palate could not get past a lot of the agressiveness with it. I would love to have it again now that I’m more ready for it. It’s just a bit out of my price range as my priorities with money have shifted.

This has what the 16 has, just without the smooth and balanced character you get with the double age statement. It’s also a little higher abv, which could add to that, but I dont get as much of the nuance at all. Its spikier, and little brighter, and I lose the creaminess, oakiness, and honey notes I get with the 16

The whisky I’ve probably had the most of. Very smooth, elegant dram. I can tell it’s been in a barrel for 16 years. For me, it opens with mint and an almost bubblegum-y fruity character that gives way to an earthy, kind of ashy-ness character with the peat. Its very smooth after and finishes off with some nice oakiness and caramel, mixing in with some fruitiness and maybe honey. The ultimate nostalgic whisky for me now. One of my favorites, but several whiskys have passed it up. It always falls a little too thin and weak at 43% for me

Its been a while since I’ve this particular expression but from the couple bottles I’ve had, I always remember tasting heavy brine notes. Almost like an olive brine. There’s a lot of peat as well. Very medicinal. This was the first Islay I had, so I probably didn’t have a fully developed palate back then for the taste, but I have very fond and nostalgic memories of it. For sure a gateway option if you really want to dive into the dark and complex world of Islay.