Sherry, vanilla cream, light oak, a bit hot but understandably at 58.3%. A great value strong sherry pour.

A bit younger and hotter than batch 001 (however, the second batch was perhaps even more spirity). Still a very nice sherry nose, but the heat on the palate is a real downer. Sure, you can add water and thereby tone it down a notch, but in doing so, you likewise reduce the intensity of the (initially beautiful) aroma.

This is really the problem of current NAS cask strength bottlings: they promise to present the respective whisky in its purest form, but end up sacrificing substance for immediate impact. Such a shame, because if this were matured for another 5 years, I believe the end product would be not only significantly, but exponentially better.

With Glendronach, the NAS cask strength versions work much better, since the distillate has more character. With the lighter make Tamdhu produces, you get all the qualities of the sherry casks but little else. Not ideal in my book.