BENRINNES 2013 WILSON & MORGAN 70CL 46%

This Speyside malt fits the bill, with its fresh, easy, refined flavour palette that lets the spirit speak and show its purity. At the nose it’s very gentle: a bouquet of spring meadow flowers, a delicately fruity note (bananas, oranges, apricots), a whiff of vanilla. It’s fragrant and caressing as few whiskies are. At the palate it remains very delicate, but more assertive in the intensity of taste: an intricate tapestry of acacia honey, vanilla, lemon peel, ripe oranges and black cherries, but also a slightly fatter touch of beeswax and even a hint of tannins that might be mistaken for a whiff of smokiness. Only the aftertaste grows in peppery spiciness and intensity, yet still remaining honeyed and easy.