LATEST OUTTURN

This distillery's usual trademarks were notably subdued at first nosing. Instead, we found a whole heap of shoe polish, sawn pinewood, camphor, orange cordial and honey lozenges. Some water revealed heather honey, bramble jam, fig marmalade and a subtle mix of banana chips and gorse flower. The neat palate opened with the bold richness of heather ales, sweet liquorice and spiced dark fruit compotes, along with marzipan, bourbon biscuits and condensed milk.

We set ourselves the challenge of creating a small-batch blended malt using ingredients from each of the five Scotch whisky producing regions. The resulting whisky has bags of character, wisps of smoke, and an abundance of honey. Reminiscent of "old-school" blends of the past, we thought.

Initial nosing suggested crushed citrus fruits, sea shells, ripe kiwi, buttered popcorn, baled hay and heather flower. Everything we love about this charming, modern island malt was on display here. With water the nose evolved a sharper, more pronounced green-fruit acidity, with yet more kiwi, alongside gooseberry, then lemon barley water, apples and citra-hopped IPA. The palate opened with vanilla cream, lime cordial, lemon bonbons, wintergreen herbal qualities, crushed sea shells and granny smith apple sharpness.