Glendullan 12 The Scotch Malt Whisky Society Cask No. 84.36 Fruits of Darkness Distilled on March 19th 2008 from a cask that produced 232 bottles. Matured initially  in ex bourbon hogsheads for 10 years and finished in a first fill ex-Sauternes barrique for a further 2 years before being bottled by SMWS at 56.1% ABV. N: Deep and dark, living up to the name already. There is a wonderful leathery and heavy wood furniture, and maybe a tobacco like aspect to the nose here that oozes toffee coated red fruits, plums, and dates. A light clove or nutmeg type of spice and enough citrus to get you into mulled Christmas like mulling mixes. A very slight ethanol burn slightly detracts, but I am likely nit picking. P: Heavy and gripping with a metallic note like an old school water fountain. Plenty of ABV presence. Big, really big, brown sugar, mocha, caramel over sticky date pudding, leather and a lighter honey evolves from the heavier caramel. Bright chocolate and cinnamon spiced orange zest and red fruit. F: Medium. Plenty of milk chocolate to go around, orange spritz, tannic leather, and maybe a little floral brightness right at the end. A surprisingly delicate exit. A drop of water calms the ABV sufficiently to round off the edges and unify the palate into an almost singular, creamy slightly fruity and spiced toffee. The calmness of the water drop is very drinkable, but I think this is objectively better when the zingy, every so slightly cluttered glass is allowed to do what it was bottled to do. This is undoubtedly a sherry forward profile, but the ten years in ex bourbon add a depth to the vanillin and tannins that keep this from being boring. Many thanks to @cascode for the generously shared dram. Well worth checking out if you’re in the mood for something just outside the ordinary. Distiller whisky taste #271 [Pictured here with a rock of darkness. This is a very gem looking lump of sphalerite crystals, a zinc sulphide, from the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria. Normally sphalerite looks orange to red and, well fruity, but here the high temperatures it formed in caused lots of iron uptake turning it black].