Grangestone Highland Single Malt Rum Cask Finish

Nose - banana, pineapple, vanilla cream, honey, caramel, cereal grain, hay, apple juice, citrus zest, light oak, floral notes, mild to moderate ethanol burn. Taste - vanilla cream, honey, apricot, citrus zest, young grain, black pepper, ginger, caramel, banana, apple juice, hay, brine, light oak, moderate alcohol bite, finishing fast with young, bright alcohol, nondescript citrus, brine, and grass flavor. It seems my Grangestone horror show gets one more chapter, as I overlooked this beauty hiding at the bottom of my Total Wine sample bag. To be fair, this isn’t horrible. Much better than the Sherry Cask, slightly better than the Bourbon Cask, and certainly worse than the 12 year. It’s obviously very young, as there’s a marked malty graininess to the entire experience. I get the rum finish in the form of some pineapple and banana notes, but it’s not overpowering and seems reasonably well done (or perhaps I’m still just scarred from the Sherry Cask nightmare). Hopefully now I can put Grangestone behind me. I’m a bit interested in trying some of their higher age statement releases, but not enough to take a flyer on a bottle.

There is the sweet ointment-like flavor of a Highland single malt with an underlying dark sugar element.

Slightly hot rum notes over smooth but unremarkable scotch

Nope. Not good. It has some flavors in there but it tastes like it’s had a couple ice cubes melted in it.

Clear amber body thick legs. Sweet earthy light smoke aroma. Sweet earthy tobacco flavor. Smooth finish.

Was not too hopeful with this one, but it’s a fairly pleasant surprise. It’s sweet in the mouth feel and a nice earthy finish. Definitely a decent single malt scotch. May buy some for drinking later.