Description

CHARACTER Smooth as pebbles in a pool. It’s clean, fresh and lively with both the oak and the grain in perfect harmony. COLOUR Sunlight on fields of early summer barley NOSE The bouquet is brilliant. Opening with barley sugar and a hint of mint before leading into the most wonderful notes of freshly cut wild flowers; buttercup, daisy, meadowsweet, myrtle, primrose and cherry blossom. The cleanliness of the spirit is remarkable. As the seconds tick by, more aromas rise from the glass, little zephyrs of spindrift and sea pinks reminding you that this spirit is matured exclusively by the sea. After some four or five minutes and with the addition of a little water, caramelisd fruits drift onto the scene; lemon drops and honey, tangerine and tablet PALATE The palate entry is so refined and refreshing, the sweet oak and the barley arriving together sending the taste buds into raptures. The fruits from distillation drift in on an Atlantic breeze and pop on the tongue like champagne bubbles. A combination of ripe green fruit, brown sugar and sweet malt bring closure. A taste back in time, a realisation that not all single malts are equal and to achieve the absolute optimum, you must use barley that is made in Scotland. Make this one the benchmark for all others you meet on your journey through the stills of Scotland.
CHARACTER Great structure. Firm, muscular and more complex than expected. Several layers of flavour are melding into a barley sugar and oak mellowed texture while drifting over sweet kiln-dried barley. The senses are singing with joy as it zings over the palate leaving no doubt as to the island of its birth. COLOUR Yellow gold, later summer barley. NOSE The opening notes are of soft, really ripe gooseberries, fresh pineapple and mango. It is harvest time in a global orchard, sweet red apple, plump green grapes and even a hint of peach. It is a brilliant opening leading you further into the garden where you can enjoy the harmonious aromas of carnations, mimosa and mint. night scented stocks and lilies drift on a mid-summer breeze, continuing through the golden fields of islay barley. This is a Hebridean journey like no other, but wait, the sweetest vanilla notes are emerging with hints of spicy bourbon and a touch of toasted oak. dark plums appear with dates and that oloroso richness that only Jerez casks can provide. PALATE The taste is directed. Malty sweet, cereal, honey, clean and citrus fresh. A stunning example of how trickle distillation using victorian equipment and 134 years of practice can produce a young spirit that needs not the weight of oak to shine. This sensational succulent young spirit offers candied almonds, hints of toffee apple, nougat wafers, banana, ginger biscuits and sherried sponge. It is a tale of two cities. On the nose the floral aromatics were an Islay welcome to a beautiful marriage of ancient ozark oak and young Islay Barley.