Mac-Talla Mara Cask Strength

Smoky, salty

Color: white wine. Some viscosity with good legs. Nose is sweet smoke with a tickle from the high ABV. Flowers and cereal malt are bright and forward. Peat and fresh oak follow. Complex and rich. Faint whisps of sulphurous bonfires. Some spice — ginger and pepper. Mouthfeel is rich and powerful. Some meaty flavors and oiliness. Finish is long and warming. Water opens the nose to hay and richer more complex peat on the tongue. Floral notes strengthen with time and appropriate dilution. I’m not normally a fan of floral notes in my whiskys, but here it works beautifully. The sweetness is big, but never cloying or syrupy. Some green vegetal flavors, perhaps stronger for the relative youth of this NAS dram. This is certainly one of the more complex whiskys I’ve tasted as I move towards 300. A slight receeding nuttiness begins to emerge. Any fruitiness is in the grapefruit vein. Some maritime brininess is a late arrival. Smoke is everpresent. Honey and candied fruits emerge as more water is added. This can take a great deal of water, and I recommend continuing to add it gradually as tasting progresses. There is something of a very fine pipe tobacco. Final thoughts: This is one of the most complex and interesting whiskys I have enjoyed. It gets top marks for that complexity and for being something different for an Islay, and depending on one’s tolerance for floral notes perhaps the finest that island has yet offered. As always YMMV.

Color: Light yellow/gold Body: Doesn’t move much Smell: Meaty, salty and Smokey Taste: peaty and smokey, not much burn Finish:warming