Love it / hate it

A fantastically pure and vividly expressive example of this Islay legend, we felt this second fill barrel left the distillate character beautifully exposed, with many expressive and typical qualities such as pink ointment, wintergreen, seawater, pickling juices, gauze and liquid antiseptic. This was massive, punchy and yet also wonderfully developed and structured. With water we found sheep wool oils, gentian eau de vie, citrus juices with a touch of passion flower, all wrapped up in crisp, pin-sharp peat smoke. The neat palate was a morass of tar, seawater, lemon juice-drizzled kippers, camphor, herbal ointments and a thick carpet of pure, blue peat reek. Reduction lent a softness to that hug of peat but it was still a huge dram – riddled with coastal freshness, malt vinegar, salted liquorice, English mustard powder and raw iodine.