Nose: A clean, elegant combination of thin honey, malt, faint brine, light heather smoke and fine energetic oak. Herbacious, grassy notes against an enticing oily backdrop. Nosing this is like walking through a peaceful fragrant meadow on a warm spring day, and then entering a cool, perfectly managed dunnage. Heaven must be like that. Palate: An excellent delivery that leads into a sweet and satisfying development. From faint, almost shy initial floral honey tones an authoritative palate emerges on waves of increasing spiciness that never become too intense. Subtle fruitiness (notably sweet orange), the barest hint of peat, a little hard toffee, suggestions of vanilla, preserved peaches, sherry, mild coffee. Full and rich, but never heavy. Finish: A long, lingering spicy sweetness that echoes away on waves, leaving you desirous of more. Profound simplicity - a great whisky. Its outstanding characteristic is how integrated it all is - so much so that to new whisky drinkers it might even seem uninteresting. I do think, however that the official score here is far too generous. “Excellent” : 89/100 (4.75 stars)