Just a dash: Jammy cobbler

This whisky was so very nearly from distillery 40, until a teaspoon changed its fate. 'Teaspooning' is the act of mixing a minuscule amount of one single malt into another. This allows a distillery to sell its whisky to other blenders and at the same time ensures that it will never be bottled as a single malt bearing the distillery name – it becomes a blended malt. Unsurprisingly, these whiskies are so remarkably close in character to their main distillery of origin that they are well worth bottling in their own right. This expression was created by marrying two first fill ex-bourbon barrels in a second fill Spanish oak PX butt for more than eight years. We were swept into a whirlwind of poached pears and sticky apple laces, cloaked in the sweet embrace of clover honey and minty eucalyptus. Cinnamon buns and chocolate-dipped bananas spun alongside jammy dodgers and whispers of tobacco, each twirl richer than the last. The palate pirouetted with chocolate limes, mango softness and a delightful demerara sugar kick. Water slowed the ride to roasted peach and marzipan, while raspberry jam clung to coconut-scented suntan lotion and creamy custard. Notes of bourbon and allspice eddied with hazelnut-spread on pancakes, ending on a smooth, orangey, candied lemon finish dusted with cask char and fennel seeds.