Tastes

Smells incredible. Rich complex wood and dark sweetness, toffee and molasses. It's all rich barrel wood and sweetness, creamy and magnificent. Same molasses and caramel sweetness, balanced perfectly by the burn. If there's peat there it's blended so well that I can't tease it out. Honestly wouldn't change a thing.

Port smell on the nose , super sweet and powerful. Body is light, borderline thin. Flavors are lovely, but the lack of body can't counter the burn. Points for a wine cask though, of course.

The smoke I smell is a little peaty, but I also get that mesquite barbeque kind of tang to it as well. There's a little of that on the tongue, but definitely more of your classic peat. There are some light barley notes but the smoke dominates. It's good, but there's not enough body to balance it well. Medium at most, I'd say.

Light barley hit first, then oak after. Pretty rich, nice creamy tail. The richness makes it quite lovely, and I feel like I get hints of honey and salt as well. Not too grassy like I usually tend to get from Irish whiskies, so points for that as well.

This is almost as good as the full proof, but leans a little more towards the brown sugar and baking spice end of things for me. Gives me thah super coarse brown sugar feel, not that a whiskey can be mealy or coarse but reminescent of that. Medium rich, quite lovley.

This is an almost perfect example of the ideal bourbon distilled down to its roots. Oak, caramel, rich, spice, the kind of whiskey that makes me just sigh and go quiet for a while. Lovely.

Richness and spice I've come to expect from Westland, but the beer cask is pretty minimal compared to later expressions. It's noticeable for sure, but tastes just kinda like straight ale, lacking the depth and complexity of the later cask exchanges. Still enjoyable.

Single malt kind of drifts into a speyside scotch kind of flavor, the aroma is faint but I get peach or apple. Flavor is thin, fruity, with a touch of wood. It kind of mirrors their bourbon. All the expected flavors are there, it's a little thin and harsh. Would make a good well.

Good standard vanilla and caramel flavors, a little less on the wood and a touch thin. This would be a pretty good well.

Comparitively faint aroma to the Ardbeg I'm used to, but still pleasant. Beautiful peat flavor, thinner than expected but doesn't detract from the experience at all. A touch of salt, sparkling tail. A solid expression.