North Star Tasting with Iain Croucher at The Oak Barrel, 11 May 2023, Whisky #1 Nose: Floral and musky (vanilla?), darkly fruity (dried fig, date), stewed pears. A full-bodied aroma when neat but with water it changes aspect, becoming more grassy and cereal in profile and losing some of the floral note. Palate: Grippy and tight arrival when neat, and entirely focused on cereal/malt flavours. I did not notice any of the dark fruits or floral qualities from the nose duplicated in its flavours, apart from a little vanilla. It seemed a rather hot palate as well, not spicy – just hot. Water reduced this but it remained grippy and a bit too tannic for my liking. Treacle and hard toffee (walnut brittle?). Finish: Medium/long. Malty, with a bitter/sour note in the aftertaste. It does turn a little sweeter when diluted. This comprises 80% grain whisky from North British and 20% malt whiskies (from Macallan, Glenrothes, Highland Park and Glenturret) and was matured for 6 years in ex-oloroso sherry butts. Apart from the Highland Park component I can easily believe that recipe because this has all the harder aspects of those malts, particularly Glenrothes and Glenturret. I was not inclined to buy a bottle. As a first whisky of the night it was a fine palate-opener, but returning to it repeatedly as the tasting progressed only highlighted how ordinary this was. Maybe I’m being a little hard on it but it just didn’t do anything positive for me. It is the first of an anticipated series and I’ll be interested to see in what direction Iain goes with this. By the way, the face of the Fool on the label is a caricature of Iain. Nice one. “Average” : 79/100 (2.75 stars)