Get into the good stuff

In an oiled cedarwood rowing boat, we drifted over the loch, dipping digestive biscuits and caramel wafers into the molten chocolate. Rose petals fluttered in the breeze, landing on a feeder stream of sticky Pedro Ximénez sherry, as candied hazelnuts and watermelon sweets bobbed in our wake. Arriving at rhubarb crumble island, we pulled up on a beach of hazelnut spread. With a little water, toasted almonds and coconut macaroons tumbled down a hill, bouncing off hibiscus and tangy orange trees. Finding a fine picnic spot, the Panel opened flasks of green tea and snacked on cinder toffee and milk chocolate buttons. After spending 18 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, this was transferred to a first-fill American oak PX hogshead for the remainder of its maturation

This whisky was so very nearly from distillery 125, until a teaspoon changed its fate. 'Teaspooning' is the act of mixing a minuscule amount of one single malt into another. This allows a distillery to sell its whisky to other blenders and at the same time ensures that it will never be bottled as a single malt bearing the distillery name – it becomes a blended malt. Unsurprisingly, these whiskies are so remarkably close in character to their main distillery of origin that they are well worth bottling in their own right. This expression was created by marrying two American oak oloroso hogsheads. Prior to sherry maturation, the whisky was matured in ex-bourbon hogsheads for 19 years.

The embrace of an American oak, first-fill, oloroso hogshead after 13 years in ex-bourbon wood has created a nose that evoked joyous celebrations – cinnamon pastries and sangria, espresso and cigars, dessert wine and blown-out cake candles. The palate combined sherry-fed Christmas cake, birnenbrot and syrupy fruits with a teasingly spiced finish of candied ginger, turmeric and walnuts. The reduced nose had our heads swivelling between humidor and boudoir impressions, but also with leather, raisins, peppercorns and prunes. The palate now provoked our appetites with various wine notes, beef bourguignon and nutty vanilla pastries, before vague memories of Andalusian village fireworks closed the celebrations.