ABV: 50 %
Origin: Islay
Type: Single malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 1
Impression: 3/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is sweet and very peaty. At first there’s a big hit of wet and fresh peat. It soon gets an ashy layer surrounding it as well. There’s a sweet core with malt, toasted vanilla and honey but it gets downplayed by the peatiness. It feels young and spirity and quite lively. A thin note of assorted apples can be found far in the background but it takes quite the hunt to find it. This is a young, straight forward nose with a nice mix of peat and sweetness.

Mouth: It starts out with toasted oak, vanilla and honey in the center and an ashy and wet, earthy peat in an outside layer. A spicyness is slowly crawling up in the back of the palate. The toasted oak gets more pronounced with time as well as the honey sweetness. There’s a chalky texture to it after a while. The fruitiness is nowhere to be seen at this point except a sour note coming through from the back.

Finish: A mild peppermint cloud spreads out over the palate before the center part with toasted oak, vanilla, honey and the same earty and ashy peatiness returns early in the finish. When it starts to fade, toasted cocnut flakes comes through as well as the sour note from the back. It’s soon all about the virgin oak casks though. It’s fresh and toasted oakiness and a hint of peat. It almost gets unpleasant after a while. It becomes slightly astringent as well. This is a great whisky but it feels a bit unbalanced and chewy.

Additional information
The Finlaggan is made from whisky coming out of two southern islay distilleries. It has a PPM value of 40 and it’s aged in first fill ex-bourbon barrels for ~5-6 years. It’s unchillfiltered.