Sweet and softly peated, I already suspected a mixture of peated & unpeated casks used in the mixture here similar to some of Paul John’s standard range, strikes a really lovely balance between sweet & peat. 88/100
Paul John Christmas Edition 2020
Hudson Baby Bourbon
Great! Powewrful, polished wood and spices with a lovely sweet backdrop. 87/100
Filey Bay STR Finish
Definitely my favourite of the tasting, I recoiled slightly at the STR – or shaved, toasted, recharred barrel currently in use far too much with new distilleries for my liking, however this is a red herring here as it is the barrels former (red wine) occupants that really has an impact on the final product. 83/100
Filey Bay Moscatel Finish
Another tasty expression, moved more into stone fruits thanks to the Moscatel finish, plus plenty of honey and syrup sweetness too, whilst retaining core distillate flavours too. 82/100
Filey Bay Flagship
A nice introduction to the Filey Bay house style, plenty of fruity spirit and a hint of youth in the woody notes present, thankfully not too over-cask-engineered which seems all the rage with most new distilleries. A promising start! 82/100
The Glenturret 12 Years Old (46%, OB, 2020)
I found this a little challenging on the nose with dry leather and woody tannins initially but once it has breathed a fairly classic Dundee cake/Fruit cake nature arises from the ex-European oak cask maturation. 84/100
Glenmorangie A Tale of Cake (46%, OB, 2020)
Well I guess malt-light highlights Glenmorangie’s delicate spirit and I did pick up on a bit of fruit and sugar here but this was much more fresh wood than a piece of cake for me. 80/100
Armorik Maitre de Chai 2010 (46%, OB, Sherry Casks #3320 & #3321, 2000 bottles, 2017)
Blind tasting – Dark coloured but quite smooth and soft in flavours, I was misled by the Oloroso cask maturation effect on the colour here I think. Again having recently sampled through Armorik’s core range and latest peated expression I had no idea how close this one was to them! 83/100
Egan’s Legacy Reserve 17 Years Old (46%, OB, 1000 Bottles, 2020)
Superbly smooth and very sweet and fleshy/juicy stone fruits abound, like biting into ripe peach, apricot and Nashi pears. Wonderful. 87/100
Egan’s Centenary (46%, OB, 2019)
A delicious blend full of cereal, stone fruits and leather a marriage of a good base and plenty of French oak cask influence here, nice and chewy. 85/100
