The NAS bottlings have been the weak spot of the Old Pulteney range in the past but this new one is a worthy exception. Finished in heavily peated casks from a Speyside distillery, it sports a spectacular nose that I would love to spend more time with. The peat presence is of the heathery variety and huge for a whisky that was only finished in empty casks, on a par with Balvenie Peat Week for example. The palate isn’t as exciting and the mix of the peat influence and the characteristic Pulteney marine flavors not as integrated as in an Islay, but it’s still a bottle I would happily drink at home. That’s true for any of the four core bottlings in the new Pulteney range, which is not something I can say about many distilleries. In other words, any pick from Wick will do the trick.