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

Tasting notes
Nose: This is sweet and fruity. At first there’s a sweet honey and vanilla baseline with top notes of fresh red berries, mainly leaning towards raspberries. There’s also a citrus note floating around. When it settles it becomes more dense with a heavier vanilla and caramel note and a darker ripe fruitiness. There are some raisins and just a tiny hint of leather peeking through. It does retain its freshness as well as presenting some apple notes in the back. It feels slightly spirity on top which brings it down a notch but it’s overall a pleasant character. This is a very good nose with a decent amount of flavours to chase after.

Mouth: It starts out with a round vanilla and honey center part and a slightly peppery ouside layer. After a second or two the sherry notes arrive with ripe berries, coffee, leather and dark chocolate. The slight bitterness creates a nice contrast to the sweet base flavours and gives the fruitiness an extra dimension. The citrus note is now residing in the back. The rather low ABV doesn’t hurt the feel of it, but it could use a little bit more power to really bloom. It still has a spirity feel to it which, once again brings it down a notch.

Finish: It starts out with a mild pepper note and a fruitiness, which now feels like everything has merged into one note of baked apples with sweet custard, which is a very nice combination. There’s now a lemon peel bitterness in the back together with an emerging oakiness. The oakiness is decent and not over bearing, but it’s not the most interesting finish. It’s a rather short closure which seems a bit weird. This is a very good whisky overall with a lot of nice, interesting flavours and features. It’s not without its faults though, but they are not too bad.

Additional information
This whisky has been aged in a combination of refill casks and american ex-bourbon oak barrels and then finished in spanish ex-sherry casks.

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