ABV: 40 %
Origin: Unspecified
Type: Blended Malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 2/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is sweet and fruity. At first there’s a thick layer of vanilla and dried fruits and berries. There are raisins as well as tropical fruits and lemons. There’s also cinnamon, a whiff of tobacco and a piece of sponge cake. Underneath, the distillate comes through as rather flat and uninteresting. There’s a metallic note coming through as well. It’s extremely top heavy and the sherry cask covers everything else. This is a nice enough nose, but it’s just a big fruity and sweet lid on top of a flat whisky.

Mouth: It starts out with the distillate peeking through with a surrounding sweet layer. It feels a bit young and spirity yet flat from the low ABV. The fruitiness is residing on the edges and stays there. It’s a fresher fruitiness than on the nose and reveals a larger portion of tropical fruits and lemon. The vanilla coats the palate together with a hint of the oakiness. The ripe notes can be found in the back but they are somewhat subdued. A slight spicyness will come for those with patience.

Finish: The sweetness carries over and are immidiately joined by a fresh oakiness and a hint of sulfur. The fruitiness is now once again leaning towards ripe and dried darker fruits. It doesn’t take long before the oakiness takes over and the late finish becomes very oaky and a bit clingy. There’s not much to it other than that. This is an ok whisky which is obviosly a cover-up. The (presumably) seasoned sherry cask is doing a good job, but in the end it just makes the whisky top heavy with a shallow bottom.

Additional information
This is the rebranding of The Naked Grouse. The malts used are not entirely specified but Macallan, Highland Park and Glenrothes are known. It’s finished in first-fill ex-Oloroso sherry casks.