ABV: 43 %
Origin: Highlands
Type: Single malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 3/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is very sweet. There are notes of butterscotch, caramel and honey up front with vanilla as a baseplate. This sort of gives it a sponge cake vibe. A hint of seaweed is present and it really doesn’t belong with the other flavours. There’s a fresh distillate with a hint of green fruits coming through from behind. There’s also a salty, buttered popcorn note on top. Altogether it’s very warm and welcoming on the nose.

Mouth: Sweet and Spicy. It’s a little bit different than on the nose. There’s a new fruitiness with oranges and grapefruits. The sweetness is still there with honey and vanilla, but now with some orange marmelade added. The oakiness is quite bitter with some cocoa powder and the orange peel from the marmelade mixed in. It’s an astringent oak that sort of surrounds everything.

Finish: A very fresh burst of cirtrus fruits and peppery spices fade away as quickly as it arrives. The finish is all about the astringent oak. It’s a bright and heavy fresh oak, like newly cut oak boards. A hint of grapefruit peeks through somewhere down the line. The astringency increases with every sip. The sweetness is overpowered by the oak all the way through, but when it finally subsides the honey and vanilla notes remind you that they were there all along.

Additional information
The 225 in the name stands for the size of the barrique used for the ex-sauternes cask finish. It starts out for an undisclosed number of years in american ex-bourbon barrels before the 12 months of finishing.

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