MacNair's Lum Reek Peated 21 Year

Awarded as 2020's best Blended Malt, Lum Reek is an offering from the Hall of Fame Master Distiller and Blender, Billy Walker. Yes, the same genius behind Glendronach and GlenAllachie nowadays. Lum Reek tells the story of MacNair, who was making a fine whisky but the lum (chimney) of his house went out of control and started smoking the whole place. Eventually that smoke entered the glass of his own whisky and when he tasted it, he said that it was now perfect. It is bottled at 48%abv, and it is a Peated Speyside Blended malt with a lovely golden color. On the nose, it is quite lovely. Cotton candy, chocolate, almonds and a pecan pie. Cotton socks, fondant. After a first sip, the aroma changed into red apples, suspiros (hard meringue) and dulce de leche. Apricots. On the palate, rich flavors of caramelized apples. Beautiful spiciness, pepper and salt. After a few sips it becomes very salty, hay and grassy. Aftertaste gave me a minuscule puff of aromatic smoke, but only on the first sip.  Hay, salt and cinnamon. It is actually very grassy and super salty. Overall, i can tell that this is the type of whisky that wins awards easily. It is super enjoyable, rich, rounded and clean. The problem with it, is that it is called "Lum Reek" which translates to a stinky chimney, but it has almost no smoke at all!. Having said that, this is actually delicious. My score for it is 89/100.

I ordered this as a sample, so no influence of the nicely designed bottle on my rating of the liquid itself: Nose: Waxy (Bowmore?). Warm caramel. Vanilla. Roasted almonds. Smooth peat. Some sherry I guess. Not fruity. Brine. Certainly there is some old spirit in there. I like it a lot. Palate: Sweet and Spicy. Chili. Bittersweet oak. Leather. Quite pleasant. The nose was better though. Finish: Long and warm. Oak. Just the right stuff to sip on a cold and foggy November evening. Would I buy an entire bottle of this blended malt? I might.

Good taste, but bad value for money.

Nose: floral, woody, not smoky Initial sip: smoke! Much peatier than it smells Light wine/sherry, firey, woody, smile subsidies after 3rd or fourth taste Soft wood finish