Nose: Sweet, icing sugar, stewed apples, custard, children’s sweets. There’s a bizarre reminder of Apple Sourz on the nose. Palate: Very sweet (as the name suggests). Apple, chocolate, candied orange, creamy rice pudding. Finish: Medium long finish. Sherried, spicy but mostly sweet. Chocolate chillies, white pepper. There’s an odd artificial sweetness that is quite off putting, and a little unfortunate. This is a new retail range from the good folk at the Scottish Malt Whisky Society. The JG Thomson brand is available through retailers rather than the usual SMWS outlets, and is named for the building they occupy in Leith. My main takeaway from this is that it has a great level of complexity, with some very interesting layers. It’s an accomplished blend and I would expect the a higher level of sweetness from the name, but unfortunately it’s just too artificial and saccharine tasting. After having it neat, I tried it in a riff on a Rob Roy cocktail to see if it worked as a mixer whisky. It was definitely better than neat, but the artificial note came through and I ended up leaving/ pouring most of it. Obviously, not one for me.