- Nose
- Juicy cherry and red grape, with sweet smoke floating through. Sweet red fruit, mainly ripe cherries, some grapes, maybe a hint of light prune, with very nice old wood feeling to it as well, some sour notes of citrus fruit and a nice sweet smoky touch, distant wood fires, sweet glazed meats roasted on bonfires. Bonfire ashes, hoisin sauce, roasted cashew nuts, cured meat but also a subtle lifted perfumed note.
- Palate
- Chocolate raisins, jammy sultanas, burning peat and charred oak. Dried fruit smoldered by smoke, mostly sultanas. A hint of chocolate and some wood spices and pepper. Lovely peaty, with a wee medicinal note yet quite sweet with ample wood to support it all, creamy vanilla and the peat is balanced yet very present. Dry, oily and dirty. Resinous and textured. The smoke is present but doesn't dominate the whisky, while the Marsala influence, which is delicate, adds a depth and texture to the palate with a slight chocolate and salted nut undertone.
- Finish
- Soft salinity sticks around on the finish. Salty, wasted cigar leaf, red berries jam, peat ashes. A very long finish that builds to a gently sweet but dry, warm and lingering crescendo.
