Appearance: Nice and vibrant. Autumnal (love that word) leaf auburn. The viscous film, when swirled, that takes an age to morph into beautiful thick legs
Nose: Beautiful plethora of black and red berry fruit aromas, all dusted with confectionary sugar. There’s banana milk and sugar too (anyone else have this for breakfast as a kid??). It is very reminiscent of a sweet shop, so sugary! There’s a lovely balance of alcohol too.
Candied orange maybe? Maybe even orange infused honey? Again, there’s barley and dusty undertones. It’s a very nice nose indeed.
Palate: Quite a thin mouthfeel with this one. Chilli again, drying on the tongue, aniseed twists, cherry, milk duds and blackberries. I like the running theme of a real hit of flavour. Grapefruit/blood orange bitterness balances well with the sweeter sugary notes. Sherbert dip, with the liquorice stick at the top.
Finish: The finish is still full of the huge flavour bomb. As this dissipates, the black pepper and chilli linger and tingle. The grapefruit bitterness too.
Overall: Another flavour bomb cloaked in a nose of subtle aromas. I’m not a fan of bitter grapefruit style notes and this edges close to being unpleasant for me, but stops just short of that. I like it as a ‘different’ whisky, but not sure I’d enjoy a whole bottle
