Complex spices roll across the palate; cinnamon, floral peppercorns, coriander, and slightly astringent chamomile tea.  Pastry notes follow shortly offering a lovely hint of lightly roasted coffee or a brûléed sugar topping— it’s a cinnamon roll fresh out of the oven covered in a rich buttercream frosting.

Fire!  Burning tar, a beach bonfire, a chemical fire, an oil lamp— where there is smoke there is fire.  There are bits of corroded batteries— copper, chemical, and smelling a bit of rust.  Lovely meat turning on a spit over an open flame.  The smoke is vaguely salty and chemical, but more than anything it is sinus-clearlingly herbal.

Mellow and restrained, the palate is simple and the body is quite light.  It is an easy drinker— a  nondescript sweetness is backed by just a hint of smoke.  Bits of ginger, orange, and tea give some complexity to the body with just a hint of cocoa near the end.

Pirates?  Smugglers?  Lovers?  A three hour tour?  Who exactly is going on the ‘night cruise?’

I love a good coastal, full flavored, heady maritime dram, the more the better— even a glass of briney sea water is not quite maritime enough for me.  I never expected to run in to a dram that had too much maritime influence.  This Old Pulteney may have crossed the line.

Like most triple distilled Lowland malts the body on this Auchentoshan is light, airy, and smooth.  While I prefer something a bit thicker, the dram manages to be jam packed with flavor and complexity.  It takes on a lot of rich sherry notes which combine well with some of the creaminess of the malt.  While there is a lot to love here, I do think the light body does hold the dram back a bit and the finish is just not quite long enough.

An intriguing combination of peated malt from Scotland and Westland’s five malt blend, all distilled, casked, and aged in the Pacific Northwest.  The result is a dram the combines some of the sweet honey and barley sugar of the Westland American Oak with the savory, slightly earthy, notes of a heavily peated Highland scotch.  

The nose on this was excellent— I love funky cheese notes— it was salty with the perfect hint of sherry rich umami.  The vinegar and burning oil provided a solid balance between the peat and sherry.  This dram highlights the subtle virtues of a refill sherry cask.

There seems to be lovely thick maltiness to Balmenachs which I absolutely love.  This dram has a wonderful maturity and lovely mix of oaky spice and sweetness.  I did not find it quite as interesting and so its grade is just a bit lower.

I think if tropical fruit notes are what you want, there are much better bottles to search out.  If you are a fan of citric not overly sweet drams, this might be more up your alley. 

If this gets an F, its only because it stands for ‘Flipping Amazing’ (or insert the obvious stronger language there for a stronger exclamation).  This was absolutely outstanding. 

An absolutely lovely Bowmore.  Loads of lovely notes from the oak, wine, and peat that really compliment one another.  I enjoyed the bit of decaying vegetation and rot that came through with the stewed fruits and the dark chocolate.  The prominent aroma of chestnuts gave the dram a real unique edge, the note was so unusual I had to check and make sure I was not imaging it.

The body on this was just excellent and there was just enough spice and cream to keep the sweeter notes interesting.  I was a great introduction to single grain and I can see how this would be an excellent ingredient in a blended scotch— mouthfeel, cream, florals, sweetness— this could add them all and maybe balance earthier or peatier notes.

The hints of smoke and caramelization gave the dram some depth, though too much of the spice remained faint and subdued in the background.  Adding water to the dram only seemed to bring out the honeyed sweetness and leave many of the other flavor notes sunk in the background.  It was an interesting dram— I would happily accept a pour of it, but I do not think I will be hunting a bottle any time soon.

There is a lot to love and I am sure fans of Bunnahabhain would enjoy this take on some of herbal sweet notes I typically get from their expressions.  I guess I still have not quite found the Bunna to punch my ticket aboard the hype train, though this was the best I have had so far.