Tasting Notes: Adelphi: Akkeshi: 3 Year: Cask 1011

Adelphi: Akkeshi: 3 Year: Cask 1011 (Japanese Single Malt Whisky: 3 Year: 57.8% ABV)

Visual: Very pale grain colour. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Light salt. Alcohol strength. Soot and cigarette ash. Peat smoke. Moss. Smoked kippers. Slight vanilla. Lightly medicinal. Burnt marshmallow. Water adds toasted teacakes.

Body: Toffee. Alcohol strength. Burnt beef. Caramel. Moss. Peaty. Malt chocolate. Vanilla. Dry smoke. Smoked beef. Strawberry crème. Water adds golden syrup. Smoked bacon. More moss. Cherries.

Finish: Burnt marshmallow. Mossy. Soot. Mild lime cordial. Alcohol tingle. Vanilla. Water adds smoked bacon and sweet toffee syrup.

Conclusion: Ok, there is no way a 50% plus abv, 3 year old whisky should be this smooth. Ok, it does have a noticeable alcohol weight, warmth and a prickle, but compared to what you would expect from a dram like this? This is silk smooth by that measure. I mean apart from the peat natch, this is a freaking peat bomb.

While it has a slight salt and medicinal style that calls to having slight Islay influence that is definitely not the main point – but more on that later. But on the peat, yeah this is peaty, definitely emphasises by its youth so there has not been time for the peat to be lost. There is kind of kippers in the aroma but more into smoked meat in the body, going from more beef like neat, into smoked bacon with water, and with ash notes just lying around that. So, yeah, big peat, as I say really taking advantage if its youth to just punch out all the smokey strengths.

Like, if you want a comparison for intensity this feels like a somehow smoother despite being younger take on Ardbegs Wee Beastie for peat punch (Though this is significantly more expensive), offset slightly by vanilla notes from its time in the bourbon. A simple but effective style.

Water just mixes this all up. SO MUCH!

Like, the peat is still intense and the vanilla/toffee/etc sweet notes take on a watered down golden syrup style around the edges but more importantly the bright fruity notes come out, and not only the green fruit notes I would expect from a young whisky like this.

There are hints of strawberry and cherry, subtle but present. Is this the sign of the distillery character under the peat? Is my mind making shit up to compensate for the range of intensities it has just been hit by? No idea, but whatever the reason it made for delicious spirit.

When I first tried this a few weeks back I was viewing it as an excellent peat bomb, fantastic for its age, but, you know what you can get better for much cheaper. For example the aforementioned Wee Beastie. I was going to say only get this if you love trying new Japanese whiskies as you know that unfortunately, like most Japanese distilleries, new releases from this Distillery are just going to go up and up in price from here. So, while this is a great example of their whisky, generally I would recommend a cheaper dram.

Now, after it has had some time to air and I have returned to it a few times… well it is still mostly that, but the quality of the spirit, combined with that huge peat, it may just be worth the marked up price for such a young whisky. Maybe. Not sure but maybe. It is very good.

Background: Ohh this is exciting. While I was in a cool hotel whisky bar in Nikko, one of my fellow travels tried a dram of Akkeshi’s blended whisky and said it was very nice – at the time I presumed them to be the name of a blender and didn’t realise they were a distillery turning out their own single malts as well. So then this turned up at Independent Spirit I was very interested. A heavily peated expression, from Adelphi who tend to be a phenomenal independent bottler and at decent prices. Now about that price, despite this being three years old it was around the hundred pounds mark, which is a heck of a lot for a three year old whisky, even a cask strength one like this, however I’ve seen how much darn Japanese whiskies like Chichibu end up going for, with their new 10 year old being over a thousand pounds, so I figured this may be my only chance to try before it went out of my price range so decided to grab. On that age, this was distilled 2018 and bottled in 2023, yet is three years old? At best guess this spent some time travelling between Japan and UK in a contained that did not count for ageing which is why it is 3 year old despite that obviously not 3 year range of dates. One of only 253 bottles from cask 1011 which was a first fill bourbon barrel. Whew that is a lot of text, anything else? Oh yeah for a young peaty dram like this I wanted big music so went with Napalm Death: Apex Predator, Easy Meat.

Tasting Notes: Kilkerran: Heavily Peated Small Batch

Kilkerran: Heavily Peated Small Batch (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 59.2% ABV)

Visual: Pale light gold. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Oily. Peaty. Apples. Smooth yet lightly medicinal. Grassy. Slight apricot. Water makes slightly more obvious medicinal.

Body: Honey. Golden syrup. Tannins. Slight tea bags. Apricot. Peaty. Smoked meat. Raisins. Water adds green grapes. Fatty butter. Red grapes. Vanilla.

Finish: Dried meat. Smoked meat. Generally meaty. Raisins. Water adds vanilla and more smoked meat.

Conclusion: Ohhh this no longer feels like a work in progress like the peat in progress releases, this feel like how a peated Kilkerran should do. As mentioned in the background it seems peat in progress and small batch heavily peated are often released during the same years, so this isn’t the natural endpoint of those, but still, this feels like a finished product and a worthy one at that.

Initially coming across as just oily and peaty, as you acclimatise to that you start to realise there is a sweet, apricot like set of notes along with both red and green grapes working there in the background. Such a fruity range behind an impressive level of peat. Even more so, behind all of that there is still that traditional grassy Campbeltown character helping give it some savoury grounding.

It makes it feel much more polished than my previous encounters with Kilkerran peated expressions. There is usually that peat meets grassy character, but this has much more. You need a touch of water to really get the best of it, a lot of the notes are hard to grasp when neat, but with that the lovely, more fruity range comes out.

A genuinely good release. If the end point of the peat in progress leads to anything similar to this I will be happy indeed.

Background: So, previously I have tried Kilkerran peat in progress, which seemingly was the peat equivalent of the work in progress early whiskies they released of Kilkerran while they only had young whisky available so were not ready for standard bottlings. This is not peat in progress, this is small bath, so does that mean they have finally reached a time they can release a standard bottling of peated Kilkerran? Apparently, nope, these small batches have been released for a while. So what makes this small batch and not peat in progress? No idea. Ah well, I’ll take any excuse to try some more Kilkerran. This was the final of the whiskies in Independent Spirit’s Burns night whisky tasting. Saving the big peat bomb for the end. Despite having had a lot of strong and strong flavoured whiskies in the night I did my best to try and turn out decent notes. Hope you like them.

Tasting Notes: Ardnamurchan: Cask Strength Release 2023

Ardnamurchan: Cask Strength Release 2023 (Scottish Single Malt Highland Whisky: 58.1% ABV)

Visual: A light, clear yellow gold. A mix of slow and fast medium thickness streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Dried beef. Slight dry custard. Light smoke. Fresh dough. Cake sponge. Sour dough. Water adds apples.

Body: Honey. Lots of meaty peat. Smoke. Lightly medicinal. Light apple. Water adds raisins. Makes oily. Apples and pears come out. Apple pie and sugar dusting. Nut oils.

Finish: Smooth medicinal style. Some vanilla. Oily smoke. Methanol candles air. Water adds apple pie and sugar. Praline.

Conclusion: Ohhh, this is nice and has such a great nose. Neat it is pretty intense with dried beef and smoke, slightly medicinal which surprised me, a smoother take on the harsher whisky notes. It is slightly closed due to the strength but still very nice.

Water then changes that massively. Still a good bit of peat, but sweeter and smoother. There is absolutely lovely apple pie sweeteness, yet with raisins dashed through it, a mix of lighter and darker fruit around the smoother peat character.

There is now such a range of flavour, still with a touch of those medicinal notes and still notable smoked meat, but now so much more open, sweeter and chewier with that. It has the sweet, it has the rich, it has the peat, and even that medicinal touch, it feels like it is ticking all the boxes of what I want from a whisky.

A freaking massive with with a massive range. Another banger from the ever improving Ardnamurchan distillery.

Background: Ardnamurchan has really been earning my respect over the past few years – from their early interesting batches they have been getting steadily better and better with nearly every release. Pity they use blockchain stuff, which always seems like a solution looking for a problem that has not already been sufficiently fixed by much more environmentally friendly methods. Ah well. Anyway. Fourth drink in the recent independent spirit Burns night tasting. I was surprised to find out this uses 87% Peated malt, I was expecting the cask strength alone to give it weight, but to find a peated dram as well gave a bit of extra excitement to this one. By this point I had tried a few drams, but still tried my best to turn out semi decent notes.

Tasting Notes: Thompson Bros: Dailuaine 2016

Thompson Bros: Dailuaine 2016 (Scottish Speyside Single Malt Whisky: 7 Years: 57.1% ABV)

Visual: A deep gold whisky with slow puckering from the spirit.

Nose: Caramel to twix. Honeycomb. Light wisp of smoke. Oily. Heather. Wood shavings. Light black cherry yogurt. Water adds blueberry.

Body: Strong! Thick fatty butter. Drying. Dried blueberries on digestives and shortbread. Water adds rich plums. Fruitcake and fudge.

Finish: Dry oak. Ash. Fatty butter. Drying. Dried blackcurrant. Dried blueberry. Shortbread. Water adds plums. Fruitcake. Dark rum. Slight cloves.

Conclusion: Oh this opened up so much with even just a touch of water. Neat it is very strong – the aroma just punching out sweet caramel to honeycomb along with some dark fruit. All this is just accentuated for the better with that drop of water.

Neat the body was kind of closed for me, others in the tasting enjoyed it, but I found that, due to the strength, it didn’t really show itself to me. Like this is had a kind of fatty butter quality and just hints of the dark fruit the aroma promised. Now water makes it what it should be, bringing out full on plums and caramel that makes the whisky shine here.

Then as we head back into the finish you get real dark fruit packed into a variety of biscuity flavours. Again, good neat, but expands massively with water. Top and tail this whisky is good at any point, but the body really needs water to show itself.

With water this is epically fruity, with plums, fruitcake, everything making it really dark, heavy and delicious, with spirity leanings thrown in. At this point, now it has opened up, it is amazingly rich and rewarding – a dark xmas dessert style whisky, covered with spirits.

Like this it is a genuinely great whisky. Enjoy just a touch neat to see how it is like that, then dive in with the water and really appreciate it.

Background: Another one from Independent Spirit‘s Burn night tasting. This is an independent bottling from Thompson Brother’s who have been very much impressing me with their bottlings and their own, very hard to get hold of, whisky. This is a bottling of Dailuaine, not one you see much. At the tasting we were told all the badgers on the bottles was a nod to the Flora and Fauna bottlings of Dailuaine – which is a nice touch. This is one of 1006 bottles and was aged in an oloroso hogshead. As always with tastings I did my best to turn out decent notes despite the range of alcohol being consumed and limited time. Apparently Dailuaine uses stainless steel rather than copper condensers, which is an oddity and probably explains a lot about the unusual nature of this spirit.

Tasting Notes: Springbank: Hazleburn: 15 Year Oloroso Sherry

Springbank: Hazleburn: 15 Year Oloroso Sherry (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 15 Year: 55.8% ABV)

Visual: Quite deep bronzed gold colour with medium speed thick streaks from the spirit.

Nose: Christmas cake and Christmas pudding. Thick . Sherry cream. Vanilla. Cinder toffee. Plums. Sherry cream. Time adds nutmeg and lots of pepper. Water adds tannin notes.

Body: Sulphur. Tarry. Sultanas. Plums. Brown sugar to burnt sugar. Time brings out more sultanas. Water makes slight tannins.

Finish: Lightly acrid. Sulphurous. Black liquorice. Lightly minty. Times adds more dark fruit but very sulphurous. Water adds rum. Peppery. Sour cream. Warming chilli seeds.

Conclusion: Ok, this is the first fail of the Uber whisky tasting. After three blinders (The two tasting I put up and Van Winkle 12 I had already done notes on many a year ago) this one did not meet expectations. A pity as the Springbank distillery is hands down one of my favourite in existence.

It starts off well, opens up amazingly on the nose with lots of Christmas pudding and Christmas cake, lots of accompanying spirit cream. It promises a rich dessert adventure.

The body is … fine. A bit sulphury, a bit closed, it manages some tarry and dark fruit notes which are nice, but the closed nature means it seems to lock down the ability to really dig in and get past the sulphur notes.

The finish is freaking terrible. Acrid, sulphur, and harsh. It really doesn’t work.

To try to be fair to it I gave it some time to air and open up, then tinkered with adding a drop of water to see if this could help it open up and become something worth trying. It helped. A little.

There is now more sweetness, a touch more spice. While it helps it is still quite harsh in the finish, so doesn’t fix the real big flaw with this whisky.

If it was a lower price whisky it would be distinctly sub optimal. At the price it goes for, now way.

Background: I freaking love the Springbank distillery in all its range of unpeated to heavy peated expressions. They are just so hard to get at the mo, especially the odder bottlings such as this – one of only 9000 bottles. I had enjoyed the 12 year version of this tried earlier in the year, so had good hopes that the few years would help it pick up from that. Again this was at Independent Spirit‘s Uber Whisky tasting – the fourth dram provided (As mentioned the third was Van Winkle 12 I had done notes on before, but was good to return to). Hazleburn is the unpeated take on the Springbank spirit. Not much else to add, as always at tastings like this my notes may not be up to normal standards but I try my best.

Tasting Notes: Thompson Bro’s: Dornoch Single Malt Whisky: Cask 54

Thompson Bro’s: Dornoch Single Malt Whisky: Cask 54 (Scottish Highland Single Malt Whisky: 55.5% ABV)

Visual: Light gold. Thick and slow streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Peppery oak. Waxy. Dry. Dried pineapple. Light charring. Light vanilla. Water brings out more tropical fruit.

Body: Tingling alcohol. Apricot. Dry oak. Peppery. Lightly waxy. Light kiwi. Dry toffee. Light pineapple. Water makes fruitier, a kind of halfway point between dried apricot and just more apricot. Clotted cream. Caramelised brown sugar – creme brulee. Cinnamon.

Finish: Peppery. Chinese five spice. Dry. Lightly waxy. Dry white chocolate. Water adds light brown sugar.

Conclusion: Well, the night impossible to get Dornoch distillery whisky now sits in my hands. How can it live up to its reputation? Without water it actually does pretty well. Neat it is lightly spicy, lightly waxy – there is a huge range in the spice flavours but never too intense. In a way it reminds me of the Indian approach to spice in curry – unlike UK expressions not concentrating on heat or intensity, instead on delicious flavour. Like that but with spice flavour use in whisky.

Behind that it is sweet, with hints of that bourbon ageing in a set of tropical fruit notes.

So, I say that is how it is neat. Does that mean water ruins it?

Nope. With water this becomes amazing instead of just very good. It had all you had before but now sweeter, even the spice comes across sweeter, more cinnamon like than savoury, but it still has a large spice range. Also much more sweet fruits in a way that makes me think of its native Highland style meeting a touch of Speyside influence in how it comes across with the Highland weight meeting a touch of Speyside sweetness and fruit. Heck there is even a clotted cream like note that is balanced against by the strength of the main whisky.

Weighty, delicious and opens up so much with water. This is so easy to drink and so rewarding. Oh yes this lives up to its reputation.

Background: Well this was a freaking surprise. First whisky up at Independent Spirit’s Uber Whisky tasting, the final tasting of the year. This one had not been listed before the start so caught me completely by surprise. Dornoch is a tiny distillery, and one of the many new distilleries of recent years. Its whisky is darn hard to get hold of, you have to enter a ballot each time from the distilleries website to get a chance to buy some and I never have seen any before now. I had tried some of Thompson Brother’s independent bottlings and blends before, the owners of Dornoch Distillery and they have been pretty darn good so far, so had high hopes. If I heard right this is one of only 178 bottles in this batch. However my hearing was suffering a bit at the time of the tasting so that may not be accurate. This was aged 100% in bourbon wood and released at cask strength. As always at tasting like this I was distracted and having fun so my notes may not be the best, but I tried to do what I could.

Tasting Notes: Bruichladdich: Octomore 14.2

Bruichladdich: Octomore 14.2 (Scottish Islay Single Malt Whisky: 5 Years: 57.7% ABV)

Visual: Rich dark gold with fast thick streaks from the spirit.

Nose: Honeyed. Dessert wine. Oily. Stewed apricot. Redcurrant. Oily smoke. Butterscotch. Water adds greenery and drier smoke.

Body: Honeyed. Clinging. Smooth despite that. Turmeric touch. Sooty smoke. Water adds custard. Barbecue sauce. Cherries. Redcurrant.

Finish: Soot. Honey. Oily peat. Redcurrant. Numbing after a few sips. Light fish oils. Water makes more peaty and oily. Blackcurrant. Cherries.

Conclusion: This is more easy going than I would expect for an Octomore, which is not actually easygoing, but it is a far easier dram to get into than the 14.1 was.

It is more oily, easing the dry character and fruitier with occasional red and dark fruit really rounding it out. This is peaty, but the oily way it is delivers soothes it from its incredibly high ppm.

There is a lot of thick, oily flavours – a butterscotch sweetness, stewed apricot and red fruit as just of the stand out examples. If the 14.1 was the stripped down clean version of a peat bomb, this is like the full circus of bells and whistles, all the showing off from the barrel ageing adding to the peat.

The only down side is, as referenced, the peat is less evident – still evident – just less so that your average Octomore. So if you are just here for the peat the 14.1 is probably more to your style. This instead is the full bodied and showy Octomore. Neat it still has some of the numbing intensity, but water brings a wonderful balance to that side of things. By this point there is so much red fruit, sweetness and peat that it is amazing to try.

So, the showy Octomore and very much enjoy what that brings.

Background: I wasn’t sure if I was going to notes on this one – it was the fourth drink at the recent Independent Spirit Bruichladdich tasting, after several high abv and high peat drams. I was not sure if I would be up to doing any even vaguely coherent notes on so many peaty drams together. However when time came around I decided to give it a shot. This is again 128.8 ppm and made with 100% Scottish grown Concerto barley. The *.2 expressions of Octomore used to be duty free only, but since lock-down they seemed to have lightened up on that a bit, so this was available for the tasting. The unusual change this 14.2 expression has is that it was aged in a mix of Amaroni and olorosso casks – both separately aged for 5 years then mixed together.

Tasting Notes: Bruichladdich: Octomore 14.1

Bruichladdich: Octomore 14.1 (Scottish Islay Single Malt Whisky: 5 Years: 59.6% ABV)
Visual: Pale yellow gold. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Dry smoke. Soot. Germolene. Spirit. White grapes. Water makes more sooty.

Body: Smooth and oily. Peat. Quickly becomes burning if held in mouth. Clotted cream. Toffee. Water adds more clotted cream. White chocolate. Liquorice touch. Toasted teacakes.

Finish: Oily peat. Smooth. Vanilla. Germolene. Numbing alcohol. Charcoal. Water makes for clotted cream again. Numbing peat. Light chives. Liquorice touch

Conclusion: This is such a clean yet sweet peat bomb. Initially it has a slight medicinal cream character in the aroma along with sooty dry smoke so I was surprised to find out on drinking that it seems so smooth. Well initially so smooth, if held on the tongue it rapidly becomes numbing between the alcohol and peat such is its punch.

Water helps manage that intensity – it is still tongue numbing over time, but with much sweeter notes coming out – more clotted cream, white chocolate. Still intense but now with contrast (and definitely it is contrast not balance, this is unbalanced as heck).

There is lots of bourbon influence providing those sweeter notes, lots of peat. In a way this feels like the purest, cleanest, expression of Octomore I have had. Less range, but just delivering the Octomore promise as plainly as possible. The oddest, non standard element it has is a touch of liquorice that shows late end that doesn’t really work or match the rest of the style, but doesn’t particularly hurt it so can be easily overlooked.

This is very polished, very intense, very clean and very. Not the fanciest but a great example of exactly what an Octomore is

Background: Octomore, the incredibly peated Bruichladdich expression, in this case 128.9 ppm, and this was just the middle dram of the Independent Spirit Bruichladdich tasting, so fear what comes after this! This is made with all Scottish grown Concerto Barley and was aged all in first fill American oak – which I think is standard for the point one versions of the Octomore, they tend to be the standard Octomore releases. By this point I had drunk some darn alcohol heavy drams, so notes were starting to get less coherent but I did my best.

Tasting Notes: Kilkerran: Heavily Peated: Peat In Progress

Kilkerran: Heavily Peated: Peat In Progress (Scotland Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 56.4% ABV)

Visual: Pale grain. Fast thick streaks come from the body.

Nose: Heather. Dry smoke. Dried ham. Soot. Water adds a soft lime touch.

Body: Vanilla. Custard. Oily. Oily peat. Smoked beef. Honeycomb. Peach. Water adds more vanilla to vanilla toffee. Nutty oiliness. Smoother peat.

Finish: Light peach. Soot. Charred oak. Peat. Lightly oily. Drying. Water still has slightly numbing alcohol touch. Nutty oils.

Conclusion: This is such a good mix of influences again, like and yet unlike the 8 Year cask finish in so many ways. One big difference is obviously the peat. There is a lovely dry peat take to this and sooty character. Some smoked meat notes but less than you would expect.

However by that less heavy intensity of peat, especially for a heavily peated dram, it leaves room for so much more of the base spirit to show to complement the peat. There is the bourbon influence showing a surprising number and range of sweet but understated notes – the custard, vanilla and such – not a huge part of the whisky but showing the bourbon style and giving good backing to the peat.

Then there is the subtle peach again, so unexpected, this is peaty but restrained just enough as is needed to let all these delicious extra notes come out – an amazing balance of peat to base spirit to barrel ageing, such a good dram.

A lovely peated cask strength whisky.

Background: This was the final listed whisky of Independent Spirit’s lovely Springbank tasting – I say listed as it was not actually the final dram, but more on that later. Another cask strength whisky at the end of a cask strength heavy tasting, I was definitely feeling things by this point, but continued to do my best. This being a heavily peated whisky did help with its big obvious flavours. The peated take on Kilkerran is comparatively recent, hence Peat in progress, comparing to their Work In progress for the early, young age releases of Kilkerran. Anyway, so as well as the extra Hazleburn 10 dram we got mid tasting, we also got a lovely taste after this of what is called a “Cage Bottling” – basically at the distillery each day they do bunch of single bottles each drawn from different casks, and this are held in and sold from the aforementioned cages. Much in demand, and each is unique – this was a special treat to try – our one was a competitively young six year old Longrow which had less peat than you would expect from that dram but lovely strawberry flavours. Due to being at the end of a long tasting (Seven drams including this, most cask strength), and not one you can buy any other bottles of I did not do notes on it, but it was a lovely capstone to the night.

Tasting Notes: Kilkerran: 8 Year Cask Strength

Kilkerran: 8 Year Cask Strength (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 8 Year: 55.8% ABV)

Visual: Pale grain colour. Thick fast streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Pineapple. Tinned tropical fruit. Pencil shavings. Light soot. Burning candle wax. Hay. Grass. Coconut. Water adds toffee digestives. More water adds white grapes.

Body: Drying. Oak. Pineapple. Light peach. Tinned tropical fruit. Coconut. Water adds more pineapple. Slight tart gapes. More water softens. Cake sponge. Vanilla.

Finish: Dry. Alcohol air. Dry white chocolate. Slightly numbing. Tinned tropical fruit. Grapes. Digestives. Water adds more grapes. Grassy. Oak. More water brings out cake sponge.

Conclusion: This is very bourbon led, but not just bourbon, it manages to let the base spirit breath which is a good combo. The cask strength of the whisky really seems to let both sides show themselves, but there is plenty of room for each drop of water to open up more and more layers.

The bourbon shows itself as massive amounts of tinned tropical fruit, coconut and touches of white chocolate. More so than that there is a lovely pineapple freshness, mush fresher than the more tinned fruit notes and gives a lovely fresh feel to the whole thing.

On top of that is a lovely grassy character that I always associate with the Campbeltown area, along with either digestive notes neat or a softer cake sponge character that makes for a really solid base character.

Most unusual is when you get a touch of peach sweetness showing over lightly tart grapes – and it is this extra touch of sweetness that takes this dram from good to great.

This is a brilliant expression of Kilkerran, of bourbon ageing and of whisky in general.

Background: So, back in the UK and Independent Spirit are putting on a Springbank tasting. Excellent. A great line up, we have seven whiskies in total by the end of which I did notes on four. I have not been doing as many tasting notes at such events recently – basically ever since lockdown, but trying to get back into it again as you can see here. Kilkerran is owned by the same family that makes Springbank so that is why it is included. Not done notes on a Kilkerran since their early work in progress, but have sampled a few over the years and very much enjoyed. This one is all bourbon aged and cask strength.