This whisky has a lighter old gold color. The initial hit on the nose is apples, I mean juicy red apples. This quickly dissipates to stewed pears and a hint of cookie dough. If I keep digging I get marzipan, a hint of vanilla in the background, and just smidgen of bay leaf and some oak. Left a bit longer and the bay leaf is coming to the front with some leather. One downside is the longer this whisky interacts with air the less you find on the nose. On the palate there is oak, stewed fruits, a tiny bit of pepper and salt, cardamom and that bay leaf won’t leave. Maybe there’s something wrong with my palate today. The finish is drying, I mean it just sucked out all the moisture from the roof of my mouth. It leaves a lingering stewed pears taste in the mouth, with some leather and that damned bay leaf. Lots of salt and pepper. I don’t know how I feel about this whisky. I think it actually dares you to figure it out, throws down the gauntlet “Et uenerunt questum iniurias” (not sure my grammar is correct). Take a break between sips, pears and marzipan wrapped in leather creeps back onto your tongue. Not sure I finished my dram out of pleasure or that I refused to be beaten. I will figure you out AnCnoc 12. IN the end I decide it is an interesting dram, to be drunk slowly on a warm summer evening, which is exactly what I am doing.