Super tasty! This dram continues the streak of awesome Sauternes-cask whiskies I’ve sampled lately. This one has balanced sweet, sour, spicy, salty, smoky, and savoury, Almost Ardbeg-like, really, but without that earthy side. I guess that puts it closer to Kilchoman then. The texture is gorgeous, and I love the length of the sweet notes on the finish. It’s not a crazy stand-out, but it’s a dram that I’d very much enjoy having a bottle of.
Nose: Sweet and crisp. Loads of candied citrus, vanilla pastry crème, honey, and spicy gingerbread. Some tropical fruits-in-syrup – maybe mango yogurt? Lemon drops, banana cream pie. There are flashes of overt white wine in there. All this sits in honey-glazed, lightly sooty peat smoke. Some sort of oily fragrant wood note, birch bark I think. Some crispy nori and a bit of olive brine.
Palate: Creamy and thick, almost pillowy. Banana cream pie, apple juice, and green olives up front, before a blast of peppery-sweet peat smoke. Recently-extinguished bonfire, smoked ham, tobacco smoke, salty beach pebbles, and fragrant black pepper. Some savoury richness in the middle, with something like allspice, cumin, and fenugreek. Oooh, sweet-and-sour sauce, like you’d get from a cheap Chinese restaurant. It rounds off into honey, vanilla, clove, and more ham. A small hit of acidic white wine. Some black tea and orange blossoms.
A drop of water dialed up the black pepper and peat-reek, taking things almost into Ledaig territory, the it swings into fresh lime.
Finish: Rich and savoury, turning sweet and soft. Burnt marshmallow, tropical fruit, chipotle, and green table grapes. Honey-sweetened black tea with lemon, cinnamon, and clove. Lingering smoke, black pepper, and seaweed.
