ABV: 55.3 %
Origin: Speyside
Type: Single Malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 4/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is sweet and fruity. At first there’s a malty sweetness with vanilla and honey attached to it. There’s a minty overlay and a musty background note as well. The fruitiness leans towards baked apples with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. The nose is quite straight forward and there seem to be lacking signs of age. There’s also a nail polish remover note somewhere within. With time in the glass the vanilla note becomes a lot more pronounced. It greatly improves with time in the glass and the signs of age do show up after about 20 minutes. This is a nice and rich nose, but it seems to be a bit one-dimensional.

Mouth: It starts out with a big hit of ABV spicyness. It soon settles and the spicyness becomes a nice outer layer of black pepper. In the middle, it feels quite green and herbal as well as lemon sour. The vanilla and the sweetness are nowhere near what was presented on the nose. There are notes of pine and anis root. In the back there’s a small bitter note slowly increasing over time. The fruitiness do come through with a mixed variety. It still lacks some of the telltale signs of age, but they do show up after a few sips. It’s very fresh and lively.

Finish: The ABV increases in intensity through the transition. The first things popping up after it settles are the pine note and the bitterness. It takes a few seconds but then the fruitiness reappears as well as the lemon note. It doesn’t take long for the oakiness to take over though and it delivers a mix of pine, oak, tropical fruits and a very nice nuttiness. It’s a very aggressive oakiness and it brings the first clear signs of the long maturation period. The finish is the best part of the journey. This is a very good whisky. It’s a really weird one which gives it a nice exploration quality. It really needs time in the glass.

Additional information
This whisky was distilled in 1990 and aged in refill american oak hogsheads. It’s one of Diageo’s special releases for 2018. The Bottle tried is 0067/8544.

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