Old Pulteney 12 Year Old

Nose, Taste, Finish and Balance are graded out of 2.5 each:

Nose: A summery nose of warm rain lightly falling on freshly cut grass. Baskets of over-ripe and freshly picked raspberries and gooseberries lie at your feet, and the wet wicker wood infuses with the sweet juices coming from the crushed berries at the bottom. A warm malt aroma mixes with the salty coastal air, giving you the feel that you're actually standing in the very grounds of this Highland distillery. 2.0

Taste: Light and fluid, it's as if the rain-water that fell through the fruit basket has been collected from the ground, having taken on a wooden and earthy, almost peaty dimension to the berries and grass. 2.0

Finish: There is nuttier element here, salted sweet cashews in fact, which makes you think they would go perfectly with this whisky as you watch the breezy and warm Highland sunset, before heading in for a hearty meal. Were this whisky to be edible, then this finish would be like licking your fingers and finding a sumptuously salty and honeyed flavour to sign off on the berries and nuts that you had been snacking on. 2.0

Balance: This whisky really feels like a message in a bottle, or even a post-card, sent directly from the distillery from where it came, to faithfully capture the essence of the environment around it. Sent in the throws of summer, flowers blooming and berries ripe, with the warm coastal air giving moisture to the earthy soil below. For that alone one cannot fault this whisky, it then just comes down to whether you feel that this is a place you want to visit or not, and I for one would find it hard to say no. 2.5

Find where to buy Old Pulteney whisky