Absolutely 100% unique. Bourbony, yet not. Light praline wafer, red liquorice and even outline hickory. But then an extraordinary barrow load of exotic fruit: it as though someone has picked up some aged bourbon and blended it with a 40-year-old Glen Grant…; t24 now this is quite fascinating…and proper. Because the delivery and follow-through almost exactly mirror the nose – by no means a usual occurrence in a whisky. When a top-quality Speyside whisky reaching the age (in whisky years) when bewhiskered Victorian vicars would star shuffling off this mortal coil, the malt would start taking on an exotic fruity quality which, at its very best, could set itself up as a potential World Whisky of the Year in this much slandered publication. And, as we found on the nose, so too it is going all exotic here. Except unlike on the nose there is a chocolate truffle kick, too, which fully compliments the fruit and liquorice; just as with the younger version the corn oils at last come into play, doing a first-class job of continuing the fun. Drier now, even vaguely salty the vanillas have now not only unique. Brilliantly unique. One of the most enjoyable and fascinating whiskeys of the year. I mean, who doesn’t like grasping a samurai sword in both and hands and hacking your way into previously undiscovered whisky territory? Which is exactly what we are doing here…51% – Jim Murray, Whisky Bible 2022
