Master of Malt That Boutique-y Whisky Company Blended Malt Batch 1

So tonight I was out as a film industry conference (discussing the state of Canadian feature films being sold to our nation's broadcasters - or lack thereof), then out for dinner with a film producer (for some collective whining), when I'm being texted "I'm starting to panic! No review up yet…I live for them!" Well, I'm finally home, dear readers, and glad to be home - it's fucking shitballs cold out there, and I need me some whisky…and someone out there needs my review...

This is another one from Master of Malt's The Boutique-y Whisky Company, but rather than a single malt, it's a blended malt. But really, it IS from one distillery. You see, the vast majority of this is actually a single malt. But the distillery "spooned" the cask(s), that is, after distillation they dropped in a touch of single malt from another distillery - which is illustrated on the label, a cartoon of a crowd of people worshipping a spoon!! Spooning is done so that another company cannot sell this famous Speyside distillery's whisky as a single malt. Anyone who buys this can only sell it as a blended malt, or add it to a blend. So essentially - there are only two malts in this bottle, which is one of 210 yielded from this batch.

The colour is a very light gold. On the nose, loads of malt and honey. Despite the light colour, I get a fair bit of oak in there (if I were nosing it blind, I would assume a darker colour). Quite a blast of pears, apricots and oranges. Interesting nose but a touch sulphurous. But with water, that off-note is replaced with a touch of BBQ smoke! Very cool!

On the palate, even more honey, and with more stone fruits. Spicier though, with some paprika. Buttery mouthfeel with a touch of vanilla and caramel. Very interesting, and that sulphurous note has faded a bit (but not entirely). Very malty as well, and with a touch of water it becomes much spicier. Definite improvement all around with water...

The finish is cloves, mint and vanilla. Very interesting but not completely to my taste - I certainly appreciate its complexity, though - this is a very quixotic blended malt, both light and heavy, gentle yet demanding. If someone put a gun to my head and demanded I guess what two malts were here, I'd say Balvenie with a spoon of Kininvie. But of course, that's a wild guess. It looks like there are still bottles for sale from the Master of Malt website, so buy one, try it and tell me what two malts YOU think are in there!