Tastes

This tastes more like a bourbon than a malt. Sweet on the first taste with some lovely orangey backnotes. Lingers for a while and turns into a lemony twang. Nice.

Sweet, dried dark fruits and spices, but overwhelmed by a charred oak taste. Very full bodied and tannic. The aftertaste is a kind of sour ash that stays around for ages.

Sweet and smoky at first taste. The aftertaste is lemon, citrus and salt, and a strange, but not unpleasant, grapefruit taste. It’s a smooth, oily dram and, overall, very nice. I can’t help thinking another few years to rest might make it even better.

The first taste is salty, but it moves into a very sweet and vanilla taste with strong sherry overtones. It has a long oily finish with a touch of oak. It’s a nice easy drinking dram.

A strange combination of waxy apple, cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s quite smooth for a young whisky, and has a long caramel and wood finish. It’s growing on me, but the waxy flavour lingers more than I’d like.

Strong alcohol up front, melting into a peppery taste with a hint of orange. It leaves a strangely herbal aftertaste and a long burn at the back of the throat. A little harsh for my taste.

I have a bit of a soft spot for Tamnavulin Double Cask. It was a major component of the blended whisky Whyte & MacKay that was my gateway into whisky as a student in the early 90s. It’s alcohol heavy up front but it moves into sweet caramel, with a load of raisin and plums. It has a nice long finish that starts to taste more like a rum. An easy drinking whisky.

Batch 7. Spicy, cinnamon and sweet. There’s a bit of lemon and ginger here, too. It leaves a spicy, ginger note at the end with a saltiness that doesn’t seem present at first. Quite a complex dram.

Sweet, herbal and salty to start, moves onto raisin and apple with a long finish. Leaves a slightly chocolate spicy aftertaste. Not bad at all.

Dalmore (if the internet is to be believed!). Distilled on May 31, 2007. Warming and extremely spicy. I don’t get the doughiness the society mention, but this cask strength is a complex whisky. There are some floral notes in there, but layered behind spice and apple sweetness. Very moreish! I finished my first dram whilst writing this, so I may have to go back for a second.