Glenkinchie 2019 Distillers Edition

Nose: a heady aroma of warm, fruit-filled pastry. Also raspberry tea. Delicious.

Taste: rich sweetness envelopes the tongue as the promise of the nose is delivered on the palate. Some truly lovely moments of raspberry jam and licorice. Around mid-palate, though, things suddenly get bitter and the sweetness is smothered.

Finish: sulfurous bitterness persists, but so does the fruity essence.

Balance: I had an earlier edition of this years ago and it was one of my favourites. Something in the cask selection seems to have gone awry, as this one starts with such promise but gets derailed by the bitter finish as many sherry-finished whiskies seem to. I assume a sulfur-treated cask is to blame. In any case, this one starts so beautifully that it's hard not to love it in spite of its flaws.

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