Sydney Whisky Show May 20th 2023. Whisky #6 This is a tasting of Cotswold’s Signature 2022 Small Batch Release. Nose: Butterscotch, vanilla cream, honey and lemongrass tea. Orange blossom water, red berry jam on fresh-baked rolls. The character is soft and enfolding, like a cashmere scarf. A soothing and relaxing nose with body. Palate: The arrival is full of soft orange liqueur, creamy barley, lemon curd and light syrup. In the development it shows barley sugar, strawberry, cherries, almond meal and nougat. The texture is smooth, rich and creamy. Finish: Medium. The sweet fruity profile fades into a mildly spicy aftertaste (cinnamon, tannin) with a touch of orange marmalade and morello cherry. A very good young single malt that is remarkably soft and inviting on both nose and palate while having a well-defined presence and some complexity. Water develops spicy notes that are pleasant but overall I preferred this one neat. This dram was virtually identical to the two Cotswolds Odyssey Barley expressions I've previously tasted, and as it has the same casking, abv and batch size I decided to rate it here as a core-range offering rather than start another thread. The higher strength expressions, the peated whiskies and the cask-finishes are another story, of course, but all the unpeated 46% Cotswolds releases display the same distillery DNA and are frankly hard to distinguish. Which is no bad thing because it's a little cracker of a whisky, easy to find in any of its manifestations, and very good value for money. I base my ratings solely on quality but if I did factor cost into the equation I'd give this 4 stars without hesitation. Great stuff. "Good" : 84/100 (3.75 stars)