Taster

Nose: Feisty and intense with some citrus oil, Seville orange, banana, maple syrup, smoke and sagebrush fires.

Palate: Perfumed start: a whiff of dried lavender, singed orange peel, dusty spice cupboards.

Finish: A whipcracking lash.

Comment: Old-style, teeth-sucking stuff. If this was a singer it would be Merle Haggard. A great cocktail base.

Score: 8

Taster

Nose: Leather saddlery, tobacco.

Palate: Firm. Smooth. Rich. Very pronounced vanilla, and honey (promised on the neck label, I discover). Some Madeira-like wineyness, too.

Finish: Late tar-like smokyness. Gunsmoke?

Comment: The cowboy allusions on the neck-label suggest a rough, frontier whisky. Maybe this soothing spirit is just for urban cowboys. It has more of the blacktop than the Badlands.

Score: 7.5