Frankly, my expectations weren’t very high for this one. The bigger was the surprise when I bought a bottle and tasted it for the first time. This highly affordable bottle grabbed my attention, because it’s a peated Irish single malt. Looks like some inspiration from Islay crossed the sea and created this rather unusual dram.
It’s bottled at 40% and coloured with caramel, so now you know where my expectations came from. But I’m also a guy who gives everything a fair chance, so let’s dive right into the tasting notes and see:
A fresh glass of beer at first, but then it becomes warmer and fruitier, with honey, a hot sauna, earthy and a bit floral, cooking fruits. Definitely a great nose!
It’s a bit subtle at 40%, but it has enough notes to keep you occupied: a soft and buttery mouthfeel, earth and heather, apples and honey.
Sweet sweet smoke, it doesn’t resemble peated scotch in any way, which makes it interesting and unique. It’s a bit savoury and mineral, lightly salty, malty, butterscotch, toffee, cough syrup, glaced apples, dried fruits and smoked wood.
What a pleasant surprise, it’s actually pretty good and enjoyable. I think this is a dram everybody could enjoy, especially when your starting your journey. It makes me curious about their 12yo, which comes at 3 times the price we paid for this NAS, which makes it a bit more of a gamble. Anybody here to convince me?
Charlie seems to be convinced already ;)