The nose was warm, comforting and luxurious – loads of toffee, vanilla ice-cream, crème caramel and butterscotch; we also detected roast beef, hay, red berries and a chest of drawers lined with the Financial Times. The palate did not disappoint – thick caramel, hot fudge, rum and raisin ice-cream and dark chocolate mousse; beyond that, new wood, cardamom and pink peppercorns guaranteed complexity. Water jazzed up the nose producing spices (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom) like rabbits out of a hat. The palate now mellifluously mouth-coating with ‘monkey’s blood’ (a strawberry sauce to go over ice cream), chocolate Brazils, spun sugar and spooned honey – mmm! This Alloa grain distillery closed in 1993.