The second from Cotswolds for the evening, and what I am informed; is likely their finest work. This peated cask is exactly that, a peated-cask expression rather than a peated barely malt. The Cotswold new make, made from local barely is aged in ex-peated casks from Islay (I believe). This method of introducing peat to whisky can be hit and miss, so I enter this pour with a little trepidation, even more so with the heft of 60.2% ABV coming at me… N: Lions and tigers and bears; oh my. This is beautiful. I cannot overstate the delicacy of this nose. Creamy, nutty, phenolic, and spiced in equal measure. Yet, all a whisper that could be muted by a breeze. There is a creamy-honied and vanilla element to a white fruit and perhaps banana. The peat is just present enough to tie together the juicy-savoury fruits and nutty gently tannic spice. Just wonderful. P: Soft, restrained, but purposeful. The peat cask is immediately felt as charred fruitiness and briny-creosote, like old ship timbers on a pebble beach. After the peat and smoke comes more creaminess that delivers honey, white peaches, rich oak and warm tannins. Honey spread on buttered bread. F: Medium-long. Melting ice cream, ashy embers, stony-minerality and a slightly bright honied sweetness. Wow. What a treat. This isn’t peated whisky, this is a different expression of what peat can offer. The whiskies character is not smothered by the cask influence, and the character of the unpeated malt doesn’t just contribute, it shines. If I see this in stock somewhere, its going on my shelf. Distiller whisky taste #286 [Pictured here with a lovely chunk of the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds area is defined by Jurassic limestone bedrock that is quarried for the golden-coloured Cotswold stone with the highest point at Cleeve Hill a meagre 330 m high. This particular chunk is a Pisolite from Cleeve hill. A pisolite, as you well know, is a rock made of pisoids; concretionary grains made from layers of calcite. At over 2 mm in size a pisoid is a big version of an ooid. To grow such large grains of rounded calcite high rates of evaporation versus rainfall or terrestrial water input must be maintained; imaging an England with those conditions certainly isn’t easy!] Cotswolds running scores: Single malt: 4/5 Sherry cask strength: 3/5 Peated cask strength: 4.25/5