Cotswolds Single Malt

Smooth, buttery, pepper. Nice vanilla nose. Smoother, more drinlable than other Cotswolds.

I bought this whisky for my Dad at Christmas last year, just shared a dram amongst the roses on a fine English summer evening, few finer settings I can think of. N: oily and a little musty. Dusty oat bag, malt, creamy butterscotch, orange oil and waxy lemon rind. Light almond and something distinctly herbal/floral. Remarkably complex and delicate. P: Creamy texture with well rounded presence. Sweet sticky barely sugar, orange liqueur, nutty marzipan, chewy honey. Maybe something lighter and brighter like a strawberry or raspberry also. Brilliant development of layered texture-flavours that each mesh well with a little black pepper through the profile. F: Medium-long. Tannic and a little spicy. Black pepper and verging on cumin?, bitter orange and slightly tannic vanillin presence. Eminently enjoyable, complex and refined beyond its youngness, and somewhat unique in its textural complexity and wonderful flavour variance. I can see Cotswolds becoming a power house into the future. Highly recommend trying this one. Distiller whisky taste #209 GBP £34 | AUD $103

Sydney Whisky Show May 20th 2023. Whisky #6 This is a tasting of Cotswold’s Signature 2022 Small Batch Release. Nose: Butterscotch, vanilla cream, honey and lemongrass tea. Orange blossom water, red berry jam on fresh-baked rolls. The character is soft and enfolding, like a cashmere scarf. A soothing and relaxing nose with body. Palate: The arrival is full of soft orange liqueur, creamy barley, lemon curd and light syrup. In the development it shows barley sugar, strawberry, cherries, almond meal and nougat. The texture is smooth, rich and creamy. Finish: Medium. The sweet fruity profile fades into a mildly spicy aftertaste (cinnamon, tannin) with a touch of orange marmalade and morello cherry. A very good young single malt that is remarkably soft and inviting on both nose and palate while having a well-defined presence and some complexity. Water develops spicy notes that are pleasant but overall I preferred this one neat. This dram was virtually identical to the two Cotswolds Odyssey Barley expressions I've previously tasted, and as it has the same casking, abv and batch size I decided to rate it here as a core-range offering rather than start another thread. The higher strength expressions, the peated whiskies and the cask-finishes are another story, of course, but all the unpeated 46% Cotswolds releases display the same distillery DNA and are frankly hard to distinguish. Which is no bad thing because it's a little cracker of a whisky, easy to find in any of its manifestations, and very good value for money. I base my ratings solely on quality but if I did factor cost into the equation I'd give this 4 stars without hesitation. Great stuff. "Good" : 84/100 (3.75 stars)

Sweet cereal and citrus (orange peel) on the nose. Powerful to drink for the age (not thin or too light) but lacking the roundness of finish want might hope for from later Cotswolds releases.