Walking the verdant vines

$130

211 Left

Flavour Profile:

Sweet Fruity & Mellow
Age:

12 years
Region:

Speyside Lossie
Cask:

Second-fill Sauternes barrique
ABV:

58.7%
VOL:

700mL

Notes

Distillery Dive Cask to be paired with Cask No. 85.97

About Walking the verdant vines: 10 years in ex-bourbon wood allowed the benchmark orchard fruit, fig and fragrant spice notes of this full-bodied distillate to develop. Its final two years imbued the malt with the luscious tropical fruit and honeysuckle character garnered from a Sauternes barrique. The Bordeaux-based dessert wine develops these aromas and flavors through “noble rot”, an infection by the botrytis fungus. Sounds a little strange for a fungus to create these gorgeous flavors, but it’s true and remarkably delicious!

Tasting Panel Note: After 10 years in ex-bourbon wood, this was put into a second fill sauternes barrique to mature further. That has given the nose heather honey, rainbow drops and popcorn sweetness, and the aromatic fruitiness of apricots, plum jam and toffee apples. The palate, complex and fun, had salted caramel, sugared almonds, chocolate hazelnut spread and swathes of fruit, including rhubarb and apple crumble with custard, mango, melon, black grapes and spiced apricots. The reduced nose calmed us like tea brewed from dried tropical fruits and rose petals, while on the palate the fruit impact lessened and the spiciness increased – releasing clove, hot cross buns, tobacco, leather and wood.

USA allocation: 282 bottles