Cask No. 108.17

Cask No. 108.17          

As balanced as a ballerina

Speyside, Spey

On the nose we got caramel, fudge, chocolate-coated raisins and pear - and maybe moist rolling tobacco and light smoke from a leaf bonfire? To taste, the smoke was incontestable (like smoke-infused kiln roof timbers) but clean, restrained and wonderfully balanced by honey on toast, sugar buns and yum-yums - a twinkle of smoked popping candy and liquorice on the finish. With water, the nose combined toffee biscuits and Refreshers with chalky smoke, ship's timbers and tar. The easy-drinking palate suggested caramelised nuts and hot-smoked salmon; the finish, a gingerbread tingle. It has the youthful poise and exquisite balance of a ballerina.

Cask: Second-fill barrel
Age: 7 years
Date distilled: November 2011
Alcohol: 61.6%
USA allocation: 72 bottles