Ailsa Bay Sweet Smoke Release 1.2

Nose: Sweet, gentle smoke. Flavour: Quite sweet flavour, more smoke than the nose gets, comes with a bit of a sharp hit. Finish: Smoky, quite long.

The 1st release i was not a fan of. I ordered this by mistake..so it was placed in the crap pile. It us a worthy member. Initial hit is a jumble of sweet lightish peat but the aftertaste..blargh

Peaty, Islay style

The Bon Accord Glasgow - 8/28/2019

Nose: A pleasantly soft bonfire-style peat-smoke with some sweet citrus and stone fruit notes hiding in the background. Not a lot more but what is there is well done. Palate: A mild peaty and sweet citrus arrival, very much following on from the nose. A little sweet hay, vanilla and light cereal tones appear as it develops. Some green apple flavour peeks through towards the finish and adding water considerably develops the sweet malty and fruit notes. The texture is agreeable. Finish: Medium, but very abrupt. The sweet citrus and orchard fruit notes fade first and the smoke lasts a little longer - then stops dead in its tracks as though a light switch was flipped off. This is a brief note as I tried this at a local liquor store today and didn't have a lot of time to dwell on the tasting (but at least they served it in a glencairn). Very young and simple in profile, but pleasant nonetheless. It has precision and is clean but lacks complexity. It has less character than some of the equivalently priced peaty blended malts from independent bottlers (like Six Isles or Big Peat) and it is also bested by almost all other peated single malts in this price range. However it's well made for sure and the only real fault I found was in the finish which was perplexingly curtailed. One moment it's there, then suddenly it's gone. One notably good thing is that there is no intrusive ethanol presence - I would have sworn that this was 40%. I'm glad to have tasted it but even on special ($85 down from $99) I wouldn't buy it - maybe if it was half price ... "Average" : 78/100 (2.75 stars)

All smoke on the nose. Warm big flavor all the way through. Smoke on the finish with a little burn. There are hints of sweetness that I like, alone with something kind of cinnamony. I’d buy a bottle.