LATEST OUTTURN

We took a capsule of crispy seaweed, filled it with hard toffee and salt crystals, dipped it in beechwood tar and tumbled it over sand dunes. After our nasal meanders, the palate immediately had the Panel convening around a beach fire eating smoked pigeon pie from a coal scuttle and chewing on sticks of Brighton rock dipped in caramel.

Hailing from a forward thinking and truly modern Fife distillery, this unique small batch single malt is a delicious peaty potion. We elected to blend two styles of single malt produced there, one unpeated and the other heavily peated. We married the resulting blend in first fill PX and oloroso sherry butts for around 18 months before bottling at a lovely point in the maturation where oranges, raisins and fragrant smoke meet.

Like stepping into bright sunshine, this nose was immediately vivid with rich, crisp, pure, maritime peat smoke. A very coastal dram, it was full of lemon juice, seawater, shucked oysters and a brittle, blade-sharp peat profile. We all loved it. With water it revealed seaweed crackers, beach sand, lemon thyme and umami qualities such as soy sauce and lightly smoked olive oil. The palate was directly maritime and peaty. Big vibes of rock pools and medicine, with plasters, gauze and mercurochrome impressions all noted. Water enhanced the lemony, citrus and saline elements and added in notes of peat embers, wood smoke and mineral salts.