McDonald’s Traditional Ben Nevis – 46% abv

Info: McDonald’s Traditional Ben Nevis is a special edition that celebrates the distilleries 185th year. It’s a combination of the current Ben Nevis style with a slightly more heavily peated version aimed at reproducing old style 1880s whisky. Limited to approximately 700 bottles. IWSC 2012 – Gold Outstanding Medal. No age statement.

Colour: Golden, slight autumnal hints.

Nose: Gentle, light to medium peat.  Meaty, grippy, toffee, caramelized banana, ripe fruits. Lovely chubly.

Palate: Full of great flavour, lead by the gentle (~20ppm?) peat, a dry, mossy peat, like peat from a moor you’d find dried up in a warm warehouse. Behind it there’s sweet sun dried malt and hints of chewy sweets (think something between jelly tots and jelly babies).

Finish: Dry, almost cardboardy peat lead, excellent, long and lingering embers which fade leaving the sweet sun dried malt. There’s enough oak to know it’s a good whisky, but it doesn’t dominate and doesn’t leave dry tannins.

Thoughts: I loved this the first time I tried it at a whisky show, and still love it now. It’s a hidden gem that not too many people know about, thankfully (hopefully not too many people will read this blog about it!). Definitely one of my top finds for 2016. Great to see a fairly priced whisky at a proper strength.

Available: The Green Welly Stop – £38.50

Sample from my own stocks.