Last night I excitedly stepped into my first experience with English whisky and The Lakes Distillery. I picked up some tastings of ‘The One’ and the Makers series. Quite exciting also, that in June I will be visiting the distillery and get to learn more about this interesting new comer. I started with the orange cask which I felt lacked its own distinctive character and was somewhat insipid, coming in at a meagre 2.75/5. Now I move into the moscatel cask finish, and hope for a stronger performance. As appears to be the case for all ’The One’ series there is a blend of grain and malt whisky from the Highlands, Speyside, and Islay with “Lakes Single Malt at its heart. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this blended approach was a stop gap for the distillery to have a product to sell whilst they waited for enough mature spirit of their own. Here, the blend was casked with Spanish Moscatel with the aim of delivering fruity and chocolatey notes for an after dinner dram. N: light and a little rough. Floral honey, fruity white wine. Honey sweetness develops into a slightly stickier maple and the florals take on a slightly jasmine tea-esque profile, perhaps that some Islay smoke getting into the mix? The nose is very restrained and delicate, undoubtedly a consequence of the blend, but; its still easy and quite refreshing. P: soft and with a sensation I can only liken to popping candy. Beautifully crisp honeyed malt, a milk chocolate texture to the body, stone fruit sweetness and buttery cream. A slightest hint of smoke is trying to push through but it fails to take prominence as some woodiness battles with it. F: Medium. Honeyed malt, brown sugar and florals are backed by warming oak. Delicate, balanced sweetness, and clean crisp profiles make for a refreshing and vibrant dram. This is an english flower garden in the height of summer. It doesn’t wow me, but it does hold my attention. I’m not sure if the desert intention is here, for me I’d be happy filling a wine glass with it and having it on the grass, in the sun in place of a SSB or other crisp white wine. Assuming that this is the same blend as the orange cask finish then the cask choice is clearly so vey important to the mix. Where I found the orange insipid and shy, the Moscatel is balanced, vibrant, and vivacious. It could use some more depth of flavours, if the Islay smoke could drift in a little more then I’d be very happy indeed. And sure, the nose could be more punchy. But, overall this is a great little blend and a well executed use of casking. [Pictured here with a 444 million year old Diorite from Embleton, pretty much outside the Lakes Distillery front door. This intrusive igneous rock formed as one of many plugs and sheets that intrude into the slates around Cockermouth in the Lake District. In case you are wondering, diorites are chemically somewhere inbetween basalt and granite] Distiller whisky taste #126