Tasting note

Nose: curiously, there is a sea-weed saltiness attached to this one: not exactly what you expect to find from a malt made and (I think) matured in the centre of the Scottish Highlands. But it adds a compellingly attractive - if eyebrow raising - element to this delicately framed and gently structured, lightly honeyed malt fest. The oak splendidly keeps within the spirit of the style; Taste: just how many variations on a honeyed theme can you get? Here I count at least five, each wave coming in after the other with just the odd nip and tuck or expansion of its intensity; the very faintest smoke is detectable and just when the natural caramels appear to be getting too excited, the malt re-establishes itself; Finish: medium length, bur sheer quality all the way: Bird's custard mixing dreamily with drier, playfully spiced, oaky vanillas. The lightest of oils spreads the grassy, sharper malts to ensure a wonderful lightness of touch; Balance: not a single weakness: no bitterness, no off notes, no caramels other than those naturally from the oak, no sulphur. Just magnificent whisky bottled exactly the way it is meant to be. An absolute corker from this little-known but outstanding distillery and one of the most delicately complex distillery bottlings of the year. Score - 95. (Jim Murray, Whisky Bible, 2013)