The nose on this expression has orange peel, marmalade and the sherry cask influence is obvious. The taste is smooth and creamy, with vanilla and other sweet treats like caramel and chocolate, however for me the dry spicy finish kicks in before many of those subtle flavors fully develop. That is not to say the finish isn't good, it is really good, with an almost mouth puckering array of dry sherry and spice. It is as if there is almost too much going on, and the finish just overpowers it all a little. With water it gets even more spicy, dry and delicious. Does it make sense to say I would drink this one for the finish? When I visited the distillery in 2009 I tried the 12, 15 and 18 year old and bought the 15 year old. I recently retasted them all for this web page and would probably choose the 15 again, but if you gave me the 18 year old I promise I wouldn't complain.
