Taster

Nose: Wonderfully peaty and smoky.

Palate: Smooth, oily. Sweet, perfumy, smoke.

Finish: Smoky. Sweet grass.

Comment: The revival of rustic peatiness adds a whole new element to today's palette of Irish whiskey flavours.

Score: 8.5

Taster

Nose: Sweet, clean peat, vanilla and-floral notes. One of the most profound and complex of Irish noses.

Palate: Again very sweet, peaty. Softly honeyed and oily Mild molasses, fabulously smoky.

Finish: Becomes drier as some oak bites, but the peat just keeps on rumbling along.

Comment: This single malt had suffered from an identity crisis over the last year or so. Some vattings had become slightly off-key, dirty even, and the malt had lost direction. This bottling, however, is back to its brilliant best.

Score: 9