Tastes

Smoke Leather Icing sugar Dried fruit especially peel Sugar dusted jelly babies Strong Tea Royal icing This is a large slice of Christmas cake eaten in front of a roaring coal fire

Wasn't certain that I'd like this,as I was comparing it to the Longrow CV & it felt thinner less substantial. I then added the merest suggestion of some water to it & by some strange alchemy it seemed thicker had more mouth feel, it also invited the smokey elements to the front of the stage for their moment in the light.

I think my first ever taste of this whisky was virtual. I was playing Yakuza on the PlayStation & one of the features of the game was that your character could walk into a bar & chill out with a malt & I believe that I had this & a lagavulin. So imagine my surprise when I walked into a supermarket & saw this I purchased it on the spot. This kind of reminds me of something from Speyside but with an additional stomp on the smoke button, it goes down easily and would be a good introduction whisky before moving on to something more in depth.

This is what blended whisky should taste like. Just when you think it going to get cloyingly sweet the heat kicks in.

As a heavily peated single malt you expect it to be full of peat & Smokey flavours reminiscent of Applewood smoked Cheddar heading almost into smoked Haddock (that mineral, tin ? like element), but what hits first is how sweet it is, yet not cloyingly so. Because before the sweetness hits overkill, I would say the peat comes in to balance it, what I mean, is this stunning spicy peaty gorgeousness clubs your senses reducing the sweetness to almost the backing choir. The finish has that vanilla fudge but it's sharing bed space with the peat which has a dry ginger pepperiness to it, which is a bit like when you were a kid & you put a 9 volt battery on your tongue - that sense of metallic, but in a good way.

Colour - pale straw Nose - ethanol, custard, apple, banana toffee pepper, quite astringent although the vanilla calms this slightly Taste - ethanol, baked apple, sultanas & cinnamon? Crème caramel, muscovado sugar possibly candied orange peel Finish - baked apples, salted caramel, white pepper + candy floss