Taster

Nose: Lime, vanilla ice cream flecked with peat. Cold salty butter. With water there is stable hay, peat-flavoured Shredded Wheat.

Palate: Pleasant buttery texture and a good balance between sweet and savoury barbecue character.

Finish: Coal tar.

Comment: Very good, but better without water. Is Caol Ila the most consistent distillery ever? So many indies, so few duff drams.

Score: 8

Taster

Nose: Clean. Fresh. Pine resin notes complement a drying, adolescent, acetic background. Icing sugar.

Palate: Woody. Faintly astringent. Fresh. New sawdust. Citrus and pine resin.

Finish: Medium. Again, piney, but with a faint trace of peppermint.

Comment: Nice interplay of youthful flavours. Puts me in mind of a popular late 1980s aftershave. (Good pairing for a Cohiba Robusto).

Score: 8.5