Batch 220

Sweet start with Toffee Crisp, orange peel, white chocolate and freshly-planed oak. In time you get some preserved lemon as things start to fill out, growing in presence while becoming funkier and a little meatier – think pork and apple sauce.

It has that almost smoky, meaty element which the new make sulphur becomes over time. Rich yet soft, it unfolds itself on the tongue and like many examples of the Bens it really only starts to perform here with the signature (albeit light) earthy tones adding depth, while this pithy brightness gives lift. There’s no sense of heat despite the high strength.

You need to add water to get the full weight and personality. Now there’s some moorland flavours, with hints of dark fruits and a savoury edge that’s always gently pushed to one side by a softer vanilla accent. Oblique.

Long and fruited.

After 18 years, this is the Ben starting to move from the brightness of youth to the depth of maturity. Really good.

Look up the mountain… Badlands Here We Come.

Distinct – and indeed distinctive – snuffed candle aroma to kick things off, then some pineapple upside-down cake, a hint of vanilla, starched linen and, in time, lime leaves sprinkled with salt crystals. There’s a touch of heat as well, though for all of that things remain on the more, er… discreet side of the fence. When you add water there’s an intriguing mix of blonde tobacco, coconut, more of the pineapple and then green notes, all sappiness and unripe pear.

The texture is already there, giving a softly clinging quality to the tip of the tongue that then gives way to a hit of fizzing alcohol, citrus and a light salinity. It becomes really dry and needs water to resolve these disparate elements, while adding in some soft fruitiness.

Old Bay (spice) and ginger beer.

Fresh and lively. A decent bracer to be taken swiftly – though in a responsible manner of course.

Even after One Hundred Days Of Rain the sun will shine over a silvery sea.

And so to this week’s PX cask (where are they all coming from all of a sudden?) albeit tempered with oloroso. However, it is the former which initially takes charge with stewing plums, prune with added damson jam and blueberry syrup. There’s also glimpses of Seville orange and a twang of kombucha and light oak. Water calms it down a little adding in clove, allspice and candied peels. Christmas has come early.

A fat fruitiness to start with but there’s more obvious tannic structure which is needed to prevent things becoming flabby. There’s also a slightly savoury edge to it alongside fruit skin, leather and then the PX takes hold in the middle. Water amplifies this; steeped raisins, chocolate and black cherry.

Soft and sweet.

The latest addition to the GlenAllachie range. If you like ‘em soft and fruity then this is for you.

Beware, Oh Take Care they cried, but there was no need to fear.

Starts off soft and dry, with super-ripe dark berries, hawthorn jelly, stewed rhubarb, sultana cake and fresh black Muscat. The wood is there but handled lightly. In time, you’re picking up deeper notes of chestnut purée but also dried flowers. Everything seems perfectly poised and never overstated. In time there’s a wave of hot chocolate, while adding a little water gives a fragrant lift (those flowers) as well as added pipe tobacco and dried red fruits.

Manages to be full and yet, somehow, also restrained (compared to the GlenAllachie for example) with sufficient sweet dried fruits to give depth, coffee to add fragrance, lightly drying tannins for gentle grip. This is about flow and balance. Water takes all of this and adds sweeter black fruits and depth.

Long and raisin-like.

Excellent balance and elegance for a dram of this age.

Don’t Mind The Black Clouds, it’s under control.

Mature Longmorn’s full, ripe berry fruits haven’t quite fully ripened here (at least to start with), but there’s some of the same tinned peach fleshiness which you see with its neighbour Glen Elgin, along with light (drying) oak. In time you get some cake mix or cookie dough and then, slowly, tayberry. It’s subtle. Water adds in some Victoria plum crumble.

It starts slightly closed, with a mix of cold pastry/chalk and only starts to get going fully in the mid-palate. As it expands, so you can see the gentle fruits and glimpses of the mature character starting to build and deepen. There’s even a slight oxidised element. Water brings out more apple and some of the toffee, though I’d keep things neat.

Sweetens up.

An easy-going young Longmorn.

Let It Fall.

This has a firm and fairly dry opening – rustling corn husks – though as it opens you start to get banana chews as delicate aromas shyly reveal themselves: fresh pineapple, lemon, wild rose and, with water, vanilla ice cream and apple.

That almost bashful quality is there on the palate as well, though here those fragrant floral elements jostle against the warmth of the alcohol. Adding some water allows it to relax a little especially in the middle of the tongue without losing any of the brightness. It remains lifted, now with some green grassiness.

Spiciness with some rose.

An excellent nose not quite matched by the palate, but it has real charm.

A Narcissus Soaking Wet.