A lovely, elegant initial aroma of gently smoked olive oil, soft sea air, medicinal embrocations, gauze, mineral oils, old shoe leather and rich notes of camphor, burlap and heather ale. With water we got lemon verbena, wormwood, crushed ivy, heather flowers and bitter ales. A crisp thread of wood smoke in the background added complexity. The palate neat was full of soft, unfurling peat smoke. Then pickled lemons in brine, anchovy paste, sardines in olive oil, the peat always growing thicker and louder. Wonderfully heathery, herbal and with lovely notes of aniseed, grapefruit and seawater.

Reduction brought everything together in perfect balance: peat, seawater, citrus fruits, heather and herbal medicines. At 5 years of age, we combined selected casks from the same distillery. We then returned the single malt into a variety of different casks to develop further. This is one of those casks.