ABV: 40 %
Origin: Highlands
Type: Single malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 5/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is dense, sweet and fruity. Honey, liquorice and vanilla fight for attention against a fruitiness from both dark and dried fruits. There’s rum-soaked raisins and sultanas, liqueur-soaked cherries and a fruity red wine. There’s also some dark chocolate with a hint of cinnamon sprinkled on top. The oak is already noticable. The fruity red wine notes, now leaning towards fresh berries, move forward a bit with time in the glass and so does the dark chocolate.

Mouth: At first it’s just sweet but soon the other flavours join in. It’s dark and bitter with raisins, dark chocolate, oak, walnuts and coffee. The vanilla is still in there and so is the red wine note. A touch of spicyness lies on the top of the toungue. The bitterness increase with each sip. It’s slightly astringent.

Finish: The oakiness flare up and basically hogs all the attention from everything else. When it makes way for other flavours a savory note shows up in the middle of the palate. The vanilla reappears but resides in the back. A tropical fruitiness arrives late and comes through within the oakiness creating a nice break from the otherwise dark and bitter flavours. The dark chocolate, liquorice, honey and coffee notes are clinging on to the finish before the oak takes over again.

Additional information
The Gran Reserva is an expression aged for somewhere around 10-15 years. 40 % of its content is aged in first fill american ex-bourbon barrels and 60 % in first fill european ex-Oloroso sherry casks. The marriage period is about 6 months. It’s now discontinued.