ABV: 49.5 %
Origin: Islands
Type: Single Malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 5/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is sweet and fruity. At first there’s a layer of dried fruits and red berries with cinnamon and vanilla mixed in. It’s raisins and raspberries, but when it settles in the glass it becomes more of a sweet and sour mix with mixed baking spices and lemon peel. Underneath lies a complexity and rich background with notes of age as well as a spicy oakiness. There are a lot of tiny fleeting notes passning by along the way like ginger, oranges and freshly cut grass. It feels extremely balanced and well made. This is a fantastic nose with a clear direction, yet it goes off script and produces nice little surprises here and there.

Mouth: It starts out with a sweet and spicy mix of malt, vanilla and a row of dusty old books. The sweet and sour mix is very much the main focal point with lemon peel and fresh raspberries as a contrast to the sweetness. It feels oily and has a great depth and texture to it. It almost feels savory at times. The oakiness follows along in the background and creates a nice amount of background noise to create a base for the other flavours to stand on. There’s a nice bitterness coming through. The whole basically gives all the sensations a run for their money.

Finish: A gentle spicyness oversees the transition while the malty sweetness and the lemon peel once again creates a rich and oily center core. It still is quite complex and there still are a lot of small nudges to other fruits and spices. The oakiness is residing around the edges with a bitter nuttiness and a spicyness attached to it. The flavour profile stays in the mouth for a very long finish and the oakiness bides its time and prolongs it even further. This is just pure magic. It’s a fantastic whisky and it doesn’t get much better than this in the unpeated category.

Additional information
This is the fourth release in the Explorer series. It’s limited to 9000 bottles worldwide. It has been aged in ex-sherry puncheons directly from Jerez, Spain which probably means first fill. It’s unchillfiltered and has natural colour.