The well shod gardener

The nose combined blackcurrant pastilles, damson crumble and bramble jelly with the earthiness of cinnamon stick, eucalyptus and digging the garden in new leather shoes. The palate was sweet and fizzy – contrasting kir royale, elderberry and peach with some soft caramel. Adding water, the nose suggested sucking cherry lozenges and caramel candies in an antiquarian bookshop. The reduced palate still had good bite and delivery – pomegranate molasses and fruit leathers, baked squash and biting an orange through the skin to the juice. This whisky spent 12 years in ex-bourbon wood, before being further matured in a first fill American oak oloroso hogshead.