A steel gauntlet housing a silken hand in the form of the slightly daunting 59.6% Old Scout bourbon which actually lives up to the Smooth of its distillery's name. Admittedly it's all turps on the nose as you might expect but the taste is warming, complex spice and dusty mahogany which makes way for a phenomenal finish of fresh peas, port and cherry throat sweets. Colour of mountaineer's piss but I could happily enjoy a couple of fireside drams after a long day's ride through bread basket America.