Stop number 80 on the SDT is Strathmill. This Speyside distillery is Diageo owned and the vast majority of their whisky goes into J&B blends. This 10 year old comes by way of the independent bottlers of Gordon and MacPhail and is part of their Connoisseurs Choice line. Bottled at 46% ABV and is non chill filtered and natural color of pale gold. I gave this whisky a good 10 minutes rest in the glass before nosing, but still I was met with a blast of alcohol. Not a good start. A very light nose, almost nonexistent. Latex paint, alcohol and a faint lemony citrus. Pine resin, faint oak and furniture polish. After a while some decent notes came in. Vanilla, buttercream, custard, orange rinds and floral notes. A little water brought out a soapy/detergent note and an old ashtray. Neither one was good. The palate was honestly worse. Metallic, weak oak and harsh. Pepper and faint vanilla. I might have been able to get more but I didn’t want to subject my tongue to any more so I added in about 35% water. This took away most of the harshness and added a little orange oil. Nothing more than that though. The mouthfeel was light to medium bodied, a bit thin but creamy. The finish was medium short, vanilla and weak oak. This was bad. Another example of a terrible independent bottling. They seem to be much more prevalent than the good ones. At $84 this was money wasted. The only redeeming quality is that you can get a buzz if you can drink enough. Drown it in Coke or with a bunch of ice and water, but avoid it neat. Glad I only had 2oz to suffer through. 2 stars and I think that’s generous. Thanks for the sample @Telex, and I’m sorry that you have to deal with the remainder of your bottle. Cheers