We found the nose curious – toasted pine nuts, toffee, marmite on toast, orange, lemon (squeezed over fish?) cider vinegar, forest floor after rain and muted wood smoke. Fruity aromas dominated with water – apricot jam, hard pears and apples – also refreshers, wet sails, oilskins and hemp rope – strangely maritime. The unreduced palate brought a wee tear to the eye with deep resonances of treacle toffee, charred wood, burnt heather sprigs, leather and oak (someone suggested ‘a cooper’s apron’). The reduced palate evoked tobacco, Balmoral sauce, heather, oily ropes and ‘smoked jelly babies’ – leaving pleasant tingles after. The distillery stands above Kirkwall.