Tastes

Nose - Heavy wet sherry influence, raisins, prunes, chocolate covered cherries, dark chocolate, toasted sugar Taste - Sweet syrupy raisins, prunes, cherries, hint of milk chocolate, brown sugar simple Finish - Lingering dark syrupy sweet dried fruits, light cinnamon spice Score - 80/100 Final Thoughts - This is fairly one-dimensional and that's sherry sweetness. That's to be expected as I think they designed this blend to be used as a mixer. I can see this being a bit too sweet to drink neat unless you use it as a dessert dram, but otherwise it'd be great in a highball with some lime. Would I drink it if offered? - Yes Would I specifically order it? - No Would I buy a bottle? - Yes, as a cheap sherried mixer

Nose - Gentle nose, floral honey, baked apples, hint of fresh hay, lemon zest Taste - Light floral honey, lemon peel with pith, cooked apples/pears, light bitter apple peel + core/stem, refreshing sweet peppermint-like feeling Finish - Bright fruity "heat" lingers, lingering fruity/floral watered down honey, cooling "mint" feeling, hint of lemon/pomelo rind Score - 86/100 Final Thoughts - For a 12 year old Scotch, this has quite a lot of character for such a light colored spirit too. I'd attribute this to the distillate itself with a gentle cask influence as the color was actually quite light in color. Everything about this is nicely balanced, there aren't really any off-putting notes in this and it's quite tasty and is really a great spring/summer dram as it's really light & oddly refreshing on the palate. Not the most complex dram, but there's just something in the mouthfeel that I just can't seem to describe that is quite unique. Would I drink it if offered? - Yes Would I specifically order it? - Maybe? Would I buy a bottle? - Not at current prices, but if I could somehow magically find this for <$100USD I'd pick it up

Nose - Fruity vanilla, honey, baked light fleshed stone fruits, sweet baked croissants, apricot glaze Taste - Fruity vanilla & honey, light bitter/ginger heat, sweet baked stone fruits, baked apples, light fruity bitter apple skin Finish - Lingering sweet heat, baked apples and light fleshed stone fruits Score - 84/100 Final Thoughts - This fits right in with the typical Japanese profile of being nicely balanced and not too punchy. It tastes a bit young but not overly so. Nice balance of mouthfeel but has a bit of fruity bitterness that sort of builds with each subsequent sip. Is a very nice fruity/summery vibe to it with the baked apples and light fleshed stone fruits (peaches/nectarines/apricots). Would I drink it if offered? - Yes Would I specifically order it? - Maybe Would I buy a bottle? - Maybe another if it was <$60 USD

Nose - (w/o water) Sweet tropical fruits, toasted barley, sugar cane, toasted coconut, milk chocolate (w/ water) More sugar cane, toasted coconut, toasted barley, sharp sweetness Taste - (w/o water) Bit hot, grilled pineapple sweet, tropical honey, floral, toasted barley, cardamom pods?, lightly drying (w/ water) Greatly tamed heat, more grilled pineapple, grilled sugar cane, toasted barley, floral honey, brown sugar Finish - (w/o water) Lingering chargrilled pineapple sweet, toasted barley, light char-bitterness, sugar cane (w/ water) Lightly drying, grilled pineapple, fried plantain sweet, grilled sugar cane Score - 87/100 Final Thoughts - This falls right in line with what I've had from Amrut. It has this nice tropical fruity influence while at the same time preserving the toasted/malted barley influence. Not sure if they use rum casks or something, but I get a lot of sugar cane influence in this one along with grilled pineapple throughout. I have a feeling this would be absolutely amazing with a bit of coconut water or something for a nice tropical long drink. Would I drink it if offered? - Yes Would I specifically order it? - Maybe Would I buy a bottle? - No

Nose - (w/o water) Light smoke, white wine like sweetness, dark stone fruit syrup (w/ water) Opens up quite a bit more, dark cocoa nibs come out, mixes with a dark sweet sherry, hint of leather Taste - (w/o water) Sweet white pepper tingle, light orange zest, light smoke, sweet lightly bitter dark stone fruits, tannic/bitter dark chocolate (w/ water) Tingle is gone, light orange zest, drying dark cocoa nibs, less sweet dark stone fruits, smoke is almost gone. Finish - (w/o water) Lingering warmth, light fruity tannic bitter, charred citrus pith bitter, drying bitter dark cocoa nibs (w/ water) More quickly fading, fruity bitter orange/cherry/dark chocolate, cocoa nib bitter, light smoke re-appears at the very very end. Score - 81/100 Final Thoughts - I didn't know what to expect with this one but I was expecting a bit more character out of this one. I got nice hints of sweet dark stone fruits on the nose, but it was quite muted. Some water opened up the nose quite nicely. Once it hit the palate it was a bit hot, the dominating flavor profile was this lightly sweet but very drying and tannic dark cocoa nib flavor that was a bit distracting from the sweet dark stone fruits I was expecting. Luckily I do enjoy dark cocoa nibs, but I wouldn't imagine that should be the dominating flavor. Overall it was tasty, but just not very well balanced. Would I drink it if offered? - Yes Would I specifically order it? - No Would I buy a bottle? - No

Nose - Bit hot on the nose, sweet desserty white wine, riesling-like, apple/pear undertones Taste - Nice initial soft heat that builds up to a ginger/white pepper heat/tingle, light fruity/crisp/bright desserty white wine, golden raisins, floral honey, muscat grapes, dark apple juice Finish - Linger tingle/heat, fruity grape sweet, grape gummies, floral honey, ginger spice Score - 84/100 Final Thoughts - The nose on this one was a bit muted due to the ethanol heat, but it was pretty pleasant. It was a bit hot on the tongue as well but once that tingle subsided, you were rewarded with a nice rush of fruity floral desserty white wine goodness. It has this nice muscat like "must" but the sweetness is scaled back like a riesling or a viognier. Nice Scotch overall, a tiny bit of water does tame the heat a bit but it does seem to make it a bit more dry/tannic somehow. Would I drink it if offered? - Yes Would I specifically order it? - Maybe Would I buy a bottle? - Maybe

Nose - Pomelo, red berries, dark caramel, orange, raisins Taste - Nice ginger spice, flamed orange zest, dark apple/pear juice, bit tannic/dry, light raisin sweet, light citrus pith bitter Finish - Lingering tingle, very drying, almost starchy like eating an unripe plantain, light raisin sweetness with apple/pear undertones Score - 75/100 Final Thoughts - This was sadly a bit disappointing. It had a nice interesting nose but fell a tiny bit flat on the palate. The nose presented a nice balanced Scotch with nice balance of citrus and sweet, but once it hit the palate, it was a bit hot and very tannic. The taste was pleasant, but the tannic nature of it was very distracting and it had this sort of distracting citrus pith bitterness. Would I drink it if offered? - Yes Would I specifically order it? - No Would I buy a bottle? - No

Nose - Corn syrup sweetness, crushed Boo-Berry cereal, crushed Oops All Berries cereal, cotton candy, light fruity oil, crushed corn cereal. Taste - Sweet crushed corn cereal, hint of generic "spice" causing light tongue tingle, fake berry sweetness, Crunch Berries cereal, very thin mouthfeel, kids puffed corn cereal sweet Finish - Light fruity bitterness, hint of ginger warmth/tingle, dark berry sweet, ligth corn syrup sweet, hint of waxy mouthfeel you get after eating kid's frosted/glazed corn cereals, cotton candy Score - 64/100 Final Thoughts - This was quite an interesting experience. It was definitely nothing like I've ever tried before in that it really didn't fit any other whiskey profile at all. Didn't have that strong vanilla/caramel of a bourbon or rye, nor did it have that malty sweet of a single malt. This was quite thin all around, pretty much zero wood influenced flavors and just overall a bit too sweet. This tasted too much like alcoholic crushed children's puffed corn cereal. Everything tasted too artificial although I will give them credit that it didn't have that Splenda sweet, but it was more along the lines of corn syrup sweet. Nice try? Would I drink it if offered? - No Would I specifically order it? - No Would I buy a bottle? - No

Nose - (w/o water) Sweet hot heat, lightly oaky vanilla caramels, hints of leather (w/ water) Less heat, addition of faint cherry & oaky strawberry hard candy. Taste - (w/o water) Hot, drying heat, sweet vanilla caramels, cinnamon heat, light oak (w/ water) Still drying, light addition of cherry to vanilla caramel sweet, cinnamon heat, still drying Finish - (w/o water) Hot mouth drying cinnamon tingle, vanilla caramels, light oak (w/ water) Still mouth drying, light oak, dry vanilla caramels Score - 72/100 Final Thoughts - So sadly this didn't really offer much other than a hot "standard" bourbon experience at higher proof. Luckily it wasn't as mouth drying as the barrel proof rye, but it was still there. This was just a high abv "standard" bourbon that didn't really offer much in terms of complexity other than hot heat. Would I drink it if offered? - Maybe Would I specifically order it? - No Would I buy a bottle? - No

Nose - (w/o water) Spicy hot cinnamon nose, dark vanilla caramel, toasted toffee, light black pepper & herbal notes, hint of oaky leather (w/ water) Greatly reduced heat/burn, oaky vanilla, charred cinnamon, not as sweet smelling, dark vanilla caramels, charred herb stems Taste - (w/o water) Tannic/oaky hot cinnamon heat/tingle, sweet vanilla, light oaky bitterness, spicy cinnamon caramels, light dry herbal sweet (w/ water) Still tannic/dry, charred cinnamon sticks, leather, light vanilla caramel sweetness, spicy cinnamon heat Finish - (w/o water) Lingering dry/tannic oaky heat, bitter charred cinnamon, oaky vanilla simple (w/ water) Lingering tingle, slightly less bitter, oaky charred cinnamon, vanilla caramels, oaked simple. Score - 71/100 Final Thoughts - This was hot right out of the bat. The nose was oaky ethanol heat & that lingered to the taste & finish too. This tasted like a slightly overoaked overproof rye to me. It didn't seem to pick up many complexities of a fruity sweet or herbal notes I get in other ryes. This was straight up charred cinnamon, leather, with hints of vanilla caramels. I don't think this one was very well balanced and I think it was a bit overoaked for only being 10 years of age. Would I drink it if offered? - Maybe Would I specifically order it? - No Would I buy a bottle? - No