Nose: Very spirity to start with but after resting for 15 minutes you can start to make out the aromas behind the ethanol. Cereal, bready, waxy and herbal notes. Some hints of baked banana, honey, orchard fruit and vanilla. Over considerable time the nose mellows and gains a creamy butterscotch aroma. Palate: Blisteringly hot arrival. Intensely spicy (hot cinnamon, black pepper and hot ginger) and also heat from the high ethanol presence. It's like chewing a handful of nails. The development is mainly on unripe fruits and peanut brittle. The texture is OK but not notable. There is an unfortunate sour note that develops in the late palate and persists into the finish. Finish: Long. Hot spiced fruit that lingers on a sour note and a hint of salt. There’s an almost mescal quality to the aftertaste. A hot and totally uncompromising style of whisky. It is on the edge of being so challenging that it is unpleasant. I found this too unfriendly to take neat and had to add quite a lot of water. Dropping it down to around 40% made it easier to taste but the profile remained the same – hot, hot, hot and hard. Tasted from a 30ml sample I’ve had laying around for a while. I would not buy a bottle of this, particularly given the price. While it is very well made, clean and crisp the character is not at all to my taste and to be honest I thought it was a bit of a mess. “Average” : 78/100 (2.75 stars)