This one is really out of left field – unexpected and unusual – but we all gave it thumbs up – the nose has fruity perfumes riding a tame wave of clean smoke – tar on a raspberry bush, fruity hookahs, salted blackcurrant, crab claws with grapefruit, waxed lemons and melissa – oh, and hospital corridors.

The palate is a sharp, citric smoke bomb – the usual soot, tar, ash and liquorice co-existing with astringent fruits – salty lemon, passion-fruit, crab apples and blackcurrant; something slightly mentholic and medicinal – and then a seriously dry finish of ginger, wasabi, leather, humbugs and coltsfoot rock. Single cask samples do not always conform to the template. After 19 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead we transferred this whisky to an Oloroso hogshead for the remainder of its maturation.