Taster

Nose: Warm oat cakes, apricot jam, orange peel and heather honey, scattered with spices (vanilla and black pepper) and fennel seeds atop a bed of wet chalk and playdough.

Palate: Oat cakes smeared with a big dollop of vanilla and butterscotch, and dried out by black pepper, black tea, fresh red chilli, wood varnish, anise-y fennel seeds and a sweeter Parma Violet note.

Finish: Numbing chilli heat and more vanilla.

Comment: The dryness of the palate balances out that creamy vanilla nicely.

Score: 7.6

Taster

Nose: Honeycomb, shortbread with plenty of honey and baked pears. Vanilla fudge and brown sugar, with chocolate digestives.

Palate: Stewed apples and floral honey, with a malty undercurrent. Blackcurrants. The grassiness is another layer and there’s \r\noodles of ginger, vanilla, apricots and candied fruits.

Finish: Warming and spicy, with honey beginning to mellow and dominate.

Comment: Precisely what one imagines when picturing a classic whisky from this region. Marvellous.

Score: 8.7