A simple wood-vanilla malt, with hints of lemon candy, honey, dough and vanilla baking in the aroma, a taste that repeats the aroma with a dominant vanilla and wood tones, and a simple malt-vanilla finish.
A sort of simple tasty “vanilla”, on this malt you can teach the theory of what vanilla means in single malt scotch tapes.

RATING: 82pts - [n21, t20, f20, b21] → | 80-82: Ordinary |

Color: Straw gold.
ABV: 46%.

Nose: Spirituous, bright. Freshly cut grass, sour dried fruits, a piece of wood, an oak barrel, a lemon with sugar. [n20]

Taste: Bright, sweet. Pear, apple, lemon is gone (sorry). Pepper and spices. [t17]

Finish: long, simple. Sweetness, vanilla, cereals. Somewhere far is milk chocolate. [f18]

Balance: Not a bad drink, which seemed to me to be excessively aggressive. Maybe because of the heat, maybe because of what else. Very interestingly decorated with vanilla. It seems banal sugar, then manifests itself. A good sour lemon in a scent that, to disappointment, completely disappears in taste. Freshness I would like more, with such a flavor, which more or less draws this drink. A bottle would not take. [b19]

Score n + t + f + b: 74

Not great. Young, spirity, harsh. Notes of pear and lemon just blasted by overriding alcohol. Thin vanilla syrup with some bitterness. Not something I will drink neat again.

Fresh, pure, sweetish, bright fruits, malty and some licorice. Very classic, but delicious.

Nose: passion fruit, mandarin, banana, peach. But something like that. Bourbon barrel flavors that are already in the direction of Irish whisky with Madeira ripening (Teeling, Bushmills).

Taste: Exact as the nose, then pans nicely on corn (!), Vanilla and coffee and cocoa notes. Strong. For ten years and Bourbon barrels an insane oak flavor with perfect balance.

Finish: Wonderful, delicate cocoa flavors rise up the throat. A beautiful, finely tuned, if not too long experience. But crazy on point. Chapeau.

A little too flowery / fruity for my taste (the Arran 10 is more like my collar size), but the finish is almost enough to justify the purchase alone.