The nose was ever-changing and abundant – fruit falling in orchards (apple, pear, grass) painted canvas and polished wooden frames, a bookshop-café (chocolate gateau, coffee, books); fudge, caramel, heather honey and pepper. It turned fresher with water – scented soap, pear tarte tatin, peaches and mangoes. The palate was beautifully sweet, boasting toffee, butterscotch, caramel shortcake, banana custard and rice pudding with cinnamon. It also delivered apple, orange, poster paint and a chewed pencil. In reduction – ice-cream with fruit, pot-pourri, basket-work and oak – gentle, sophisticated and bearing all the DNA of old Speysides. You pass the distillery on the road to Carron.