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Tasting Reviews - The Twenty (First Edition)

20 yo at 46 abv - light amber, a bit oily and with a very high viscosity. The
nose is very well balanced with a base note of the sea, but also with just the
right proportions of vanilla and a sherry (?) fruitiness; fresh fruits, cotton
sheets, marzipan, coconut, peanut butter, garden mint, ginger and some very
attractive wood notes. The palate is powerful and almost tropical, with more
coconut, sea spray, fruits, vanilla, ginger and nuttiness. Finishes off with
discreet and sweetened bitter chocolate, with notes of a very fresh fruitiness
which is slightly salted and mouth-watering. More please! This is a very elegant
and persuasive, yet in a sense powerful dram. Loved it.

Pär Caldenby
(cask owner)

Pretty golden yellow colour - some sediment seen.  The initial two nosing passes within three minutes of the pour unearth a generous array of succulent ripe fruit scents, most noticeably banana and nectarine.  Exposure to air for another five minutes encourages the fruit concentration to deepen.  Hardly any evidence of peat, oak or malt in this vividly ambrosial malt bouquet.  The palate entry is luscious, malty sweet and show a dash of vanilla/maple (must be the influence of the old charred Bourbon barrels).  By the midpalate stage, the spirity heat impacts the tongue before the tastes of oaky vanillina and sweet barley malt.  Finishes in a delicious flourish of malt.

Paul Pacult - The Spirit Journal rating **** "Highly Recommended"

"Superb 90-95 highy recommended" in the Wine Enthusiast

Nose:  The fresh flowers by the shore are now being blown by sea air gusting off Loch Indaal.

Palate:  More cereal-grain oiliness.  More fruit.  More salt.  More of everything.

Finish:  Again, salt and iron.  Warming and appetising.

Comment:  Rounded, balanced complex.  Too expensive to pour on my porridge before an early-morning walk on the Big Strand?  I’ll economise.  I’ll skip the porridge.

8¼/10

(Michael Jackson, Whisky Magazine Oct 2001)

Nose:  Charming, juicy, gentle and ripe.  Succulent fruit (cooked apple, poached pear) balanced oak (vanilla).  Water brings out dry bracken, thrift and sea spray.

Palate:  Very soft malt.  A sweet, succulent, subtly balanced malt that rolls around the mouth.

Finish:  Hint of salt, butter and light smoke drifting by.

Comment:  Elegant.  You’d never guess it’s 20 years old.  Great balance between salt and soft fruit.

9/10

(Dave Broom, Whisky Magazine Oct 2001)

Colour:  Golden barley.

Nose:  Ripe fruits, citrus with a hint of ozone saltiness ending in gentle oak fragrances.

Taste:  Sweet oak with gentle fruitiness which caresses the taste buds.

Finish:  Long and silky with a slightly dry saltiness at the end.

A unique Islay expression without the domineering smoke – a sheer delight.

(Malcolm Greenwood, Scottish Field Dec 2001)