This is the blended whisky I made using the Master of Malt Home Blending Kit and discussed in my blog...
http://www.somanywhiskies.com/blog/item/169-my-alfred-barnard-blend-project-part-1. The nose was quite salty and tangy, like sea spray (the Islay's clearly evident) and also quite peaty, but in an earthy rather than smokey way. There was even a hint of maple syrup smoked bacon. The taste was very smooth and sherry starts to come through, followed by spices like pepper and cinnamon. There were also some sweet fruit notes, like a jam, but the kind of generic sweet red jam you might get in bed and breakfast. There was some smoke in the finish and with a little water some oak notes also came through. This was quite rich for a blend, but then this has only 25 % grain whisky, most blends today are probably closer to 50/50 grain to malt whisky, and I found the Islay influence dominant in the nose (even though it was less than 20% of the total ) but overall whisky was very drinkable and smooth. Going to Master of Malt website if I was to make a bottle according to this recipe it would cost $83 for a 700 ml bottle and have an ABV of 40.75%. Because I found the nose and taste a little disjointed I can only give this version 2 stars.
