Description

Tasting Notes

Colour : Burnished gold.

Nose : Rich, concentrated. The intensely peaty and smoky first nose is also delicately vanilla, chocolatey and exotic (passion fruit, pineapple). Allowed to breathe, the aroma palette becomes more concentrated, more animal (bacon, Grisons beef) and more empyreumatic (turpentine). In a word, Laphroaig! Fragrances of candied lemon, heady florals (iris, carnation, phlox) and aromatic plants (tarragon, thyme, oregano) spread throughout the aroma palette.

Palate : Full, deep. A combination of lavender honey, fermenting barley, black liquorice and oily peat, the attack is pleasant rubbery and liquorice (zan liquorice sweets). Continuing on perfectly, the midpalate is remarkably salty, marine (sea spray, kelp) and rich (Poire Belle-Hélène). The end of the palate is refreshed with flavours of white mint.

Finish : Long, full. The chocolatey and liquorice start of the finish is underscored by a malty bitterness and ashy acridity required for balance and length. At the end of the finish, cartloads of smoky and peaty malted barley spread across the edge of the palate. The intense retro-nasal olfaction is like smoking an oily and delicately herbaceous Havana cigar. The rich and heady empty glass invites us to start the tasting all over again.