Tasting Notes
Spanish Splendour is the latest addition to the Society’s non-standard ‘Heresy’ series of small-batch bottlings, and even for this collection, it is a bit of an unusual expression as it is a single malt rather than a blended malt. Hailing from the Scottish Highlands, Spanish Splendour will provide you with just the right amount of fruity decadence to celebrate the arrival of autumn.
This small batch single malt displays a wonderfully fruity highland distillate through the lens of oloroso sherry casks, in both Spanish & American oak. The Tasting Panel were taken to a Spanish bakery, where they enjoyed a wealth of luxurious sweet treats. An abundantly, almost extravagantly, rich aroma filled the room with the scent of chocolate truffles, rum-soaked raisins, butterscotch sauce and prunes stewed in port wine. The taste was just as luxuriant, with flavours of a Seville orange cake prepared with raw forest honey, which is a little less sweet and has a slightly salty note. With a drop of water we cracked the crunchy, caramelised crust of an authentic crema catalana to release the characteristic citrus and cinnamon aromas. On the palate, we cut slices of a cake from Brittany, a Far Breton – a flan-style egg and milk custard with prunes which reminded one of us of a similar dessert served in the Spanish Cantabria region, quesada pasiega.