Nose: Tinned fruit salad, vanilla essence, baked banana (SO MUCH baked banana), aromatic wood (sandalwood, cedarwood). A rich, seductive and voluptuous nose but it's so intensely sweet and banana heavy that it hovers one step away from being a joke. Palate: Luscious arrival brimming with sweet preserved fruits in syrup, clotted cream , mascarpone, butterscotch sauce and honey – it’s like drinking a fruit sundae or a banana split! There is a little spicy heat in the later development and a flavour like a creamy lambic beer. The mouthfeel is creamy and rich. Again, it's so close to the edge of being a caricature it's not funny. Finish: Medium/short. Sweet cereal and fruity flavours that fade fairly quickly, but it’s not lacking in length. This has an exceptionally rich and fruit-dominant profile that suggests a very long fermentation driven into late lactobacillic interaction, and the use of very lively virgin white oak casks. The current releases of this whisky are called “The Original” and the label bears the words “fresh and fruity” so I assume it still has the same overall profile. It does show its youth and in comparison with mature single malts it could be called simplistic, but at the asking price it competes against several fine blended scotches and blended malts and represents good value. I think you would have to be very mean spirited to hate this. “Good” : 83/100 (3.5 stars)