Scallywag 10 year old

Nose: luscious and sweet with a whole lot of fruit. Berries and grape along with pear and apple. Quite what you would expect from a blend of sherried Speyside malts. Underneath there is a pungent note of mothballs, not unpleasant but hinting at what is to follow.

Taste: a sweet palate entry, thick with dried and fresh fruit. Some licorice too. Rich and chewy. At the sides of the tongue bitterness starts to creep in, along with burnt match flavours.

Finish: long and sulfurous. Sweetness fights against struck matches and ultimately loses the battle.

Balance: these strong sulfur flavours are always what I fear in a sherry-matured malt, particularly from Speyside where the distillery character tends to be more delicate. Here is certainly doesn't help the balance but maybe not to the point of being a deal-breaker. Overall, not a bad whisky but I'd need quite a discount before I considered buying it again.