Tastes

Nose: Honey, barley sugar, butterscotch, citrus/lime, Granny Smith apple, pear Palate: Citrus & sweet. Honey, pears, dried fruit. Malty and spicy. Golden syrup. Finish: Medium long finish. Sweet with some umami, citrus/lime, oak and light spice. Sweet dried fruit, icing sugar. Drying and fruity on the aftertaste. Very sweet, alcohol heavy and citrus. There is a nice sweet and citrus mix to this whisky - loads of layers and hints of different flavours. A wee cracker!

Nose: Herbal, green and floral. Red berries, sandalwood, vanilla, icing sugar, soft stone fruit. Palate: Tart, green fruit, green/grassy, sweet vanilla. The most predominant flavour is the spice - black pepper and chilli. Finish: Long finish. Spices - pepper and green chillies. Malty and spirited, but quite gentle with it on the finish. Easy to drink and very moreish. This is a very spicy dram, almost chai tea scented/flavoured when added to the gentle vanilla. I could drink a lot of this!

Nose: Woody, green/herbal, milky Palate: Barley, wood/oak, buttery mouthfeel, milk chocolate, coffee Finish: Long finish. Salty, wood/oak, milk chocolate. This is not a complex whisky at all. Slightly hot, but a pretty middle-of-the road, spirit forward dram. It's tasty enough, chocolatey and woody, it a little thin on the palate for it's 40%. Generally OK.

Nose: Sweet, honey, raisins, cheap powdered chocolate, marzipan. Strange 'eggy' sulphur and baby sick note. Palate: 'Hot', sweet. sherried, chocolate, dried fruit. There is a sourness that sits behind the very sweet upfront sherry notes. Finish: Medium short finish. Sweet, cocoa, dried cooking chocolate powder. Wisps of smoke. This is a step away from a standard Irish whiskey. There are layers of fruit and cocoa from the PX cask, but this really highlights rather than masks what is quite a rough spirit. Fairly rough and quite hot - a pub whiskey at best.

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, berries and cream, icing sugar, orange peel/zest, light baking spices Palate: Pepper, vanilla, caramel, clove, cinnamon, chillies, chocolate orange. Chewy mouthfeel. Finish: Medium long finish. Orange marmalade. Leather, tobacco, sweet, black pepper, chillies and allspice. Quite a dry palate that sweetens on the aftertaste. This has become a ubiquitous cocktail rye, probably because the 51% rye in the mashbill makes it so accessible (without too much of the dark notes you’d expect from a rye). Very easy to drink, tasty and well balanced.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Whisky Tasting, 25 February 2022). Nose: Caramel, fig rolls, raisin toast, oak, vanilla, sherried fruit, festive spices, pepper and cinnamon. Palate: Sherry! Rich mouthfeel. Sultanas, raisins, honey, maple syrup, dried figs. Nutty, almonds and oak. Dark chocolate. Finish: Medium long finish. Sherry, raisins, cinnamon, oak, cocoa, dark chocolate, dried figs. Malty and oaky on the aftertaste. Cask No: 900371 1 of 598 bottles Ex-Oloroso butt Mouth coating, unctuous and luxurious. This is less a whisky and more a sherry delivery system! Christmas cake, dried fruit, oak. Slightly numbing on the aftertaste. This is a great easy-drinking sherried dram - very dangerous at 62.9%. A total sherry bomb - fab! Came first out of the six drams, with 35% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 87% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky. This received my vote for favourite.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Whisky Tasting, 25 February 2022). Nose: Sweet, light peat, saline, iodine, lemon/citrus, mineral and salt. Palate: Light peat, smoke, TCP, menthol, charred wood. Salt and seaweed. Hints of fruit and berries. Finish: Long finish. Sweet, smoky, BBQ meats, medicinal, seaside notes. More light fruit hints on the aftertaste. This is like a cross between a Laphroaig Select and a Caol Ila 12y/o. Sweeter and less ashy than the Caol Ila, but more so than the Laphroaig. Imagine a toned-down blend of both. (Incidentally, I have no idea if any spirit is used from either of these distilleries, it just has some similarities). It's a decent enough standard dram, but again it does seem a little toned down. Not complex at all, but OK for someone who fancies a sweet but gently smoky dram. Came fourth out of the six drams, with 9% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 61% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Whisky Tasting, 25 February 2022). Nose: Light peat, BBQ and campfire hints, salt and pickle. Light fresh fruit notes, hints (again!) of citrus/zest. Palate: Oak, vanilla, honey, maple syrup, toffee, caramel, butterscotch. More hints of smoke. Finish: Medium long finish. Toffee and butterscotch, more very light smoky notes. Quite a sweet finish with more malt notes on the aftertaste. This is a lovely, caramel and sweet dram. Think, if you can, of a smoked Werther's Original!?! Butterscotch, smoke, butter, toffee, caramel. All very warming, toffied and tasty. A lovely dram. Came joint third out of the six drams, with 17% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 83% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Whisky Tasting, 25 February 2022). Nose: Summer berries, icing sugar, Campino sweets, toffee Palate: Great mouthcoating mouthfeel. Woody, vanilla, very sweet, spices. Hints of menthol. Finish: Medium finish. Toffee, chocolate, slight funk, lots of pepper and vanilla. This is my 500th taste review on Distiller, so I was hoping for a good one - and I'm glad to say that it is indeed a very good dram! This is all about the virgin oak - all vanilla and spice. It has a very pleasant mouth coating texture, but maintaining a lightness to the spirit itself. Very tasty - spice, vanilla & cereal notes. A wee cracker! Came joint third out of the six drams, with 17% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 78% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky. This was a close second for my vote.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Whisky Tasting, 25 February 2022). Nose: Berries and cream, vanilla, fudge. Very sweet - icing sugar. Pear drop boiled sweets Palate: Very sweet, rich and heavily sherried. Very fruity, hints of cereals and some spices (clove & cinnamon) Finish: Medium finish. Stewed fruit, black pepper, clove, chilli, allspice and oak. This is quite full-bodied for such a young whisky. Very sweet and very fruity (pear drop sweets). The spices are more dominant on the finish which becomes dry and oaky on the aftertaste. A very drinkable young whisky - not bad at all. It promises good things to come. Came second out of the six drams, with 22% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 74% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky.