Inchmurrin 12 Year Old

Thanks to a whole range of strangly built stills Loch Lomond can produce a plethora of different whisky styles, like Loch Lomond, Inchmurrin, Inchmoan, Croftengea, Craiglodge and so forth. They completely revamped the range in 2015. This Inchmurrin matured on three types of casks: bourbon, refill and re-charred wood. It was bottled in 2016. And what do you know? My very first Inchmoan!

The nose is dry on white fruit, icing sugar and heathery flowers. Somewhat dusty. Varnish and dried orange peel. Fudge, but also some yoghurt, which is less to my liking. Vanilla becomes quite grand, slowly but surely. Leans towards Fanta, actually. Just a tad creamy, which is advantageous.

It is immediately quite bitter on the palate. Wood notes with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and leather. The fruit evolves towards candy like parma violets and pineapple cubes. But it still carries some cardboard as well, which is… not advantageous.

The finish is short to medium long, candy-like sweet, but with a nice spiciness. Lime get the final say, alongside cocoa.

Loads better than the first Inchmurrin 12 that I tried (from the turn of the century), but it still has a very long way to do.