Nose: Cherry cola, vanilla pod, pine sap, caramel sauce, brown sugar, oak chips, a faint aroma of burning leaves. Palate: Oatmeal biscuits, diluted malt extract, buttered popcorn and smoked dried cherries on the arrival. The development shows more of the same, intensified by leathery cocoa notes and a persistent, mild but faintly resinous background smoke. Ginger, chicory and rye spice with an odd character. The texture is good, full and satisfying. Finish: Medium. Chocolate malted milk, mildly smoky and drying. An unusual whisky – interesting to taste but I would not want a bottle. It seemed to be uncertain as to its own character. There are five quite separate facets to it: corn, barley-malt, cherries, oak wood and smoke. The combination of these elements necessarily presents complexity, but complexity does not equal balance or integration. In fact, I thought this was quite incoherent, like a room full of voices, none particularly loud but confusing as a whole with each trying to talk over the others. The sweet sherry note was nice, the dry profile (from the high malt content) was a good counterpoint to the sweetness, and the cask influence was fine. However each actor was performing in a different play. I’m also not a big fan of wood smoke as a drying process. It’s legitimate, sure – I just don’t like the taste. Peat smoke has a certain softness of character that is not found in wood smoke and I’ve yet to taste any wood-smoked whisky that has appealed. This is also rather overpriced and in the final analysis only just above average for me. Tasted at the Sydney Whisky Show, 15 May 2021, my tasting #14 “Above Average” : 82/100 (3.25 stars)