This is a blend of malt and grain bottled at a decent 50% ABV by Duncan Taylor. Drank this as part of a socially-distanced whisky festival in Singapore (spread across 15 bars instead of one central location).

Distillery: Undisclosed

Region: Undisclosed Speyside malts and grains from undisclosed regions.

Price: ~7USD/50ml

Cask Type: Refill bourbon and sherry ("but with a bourbon slant", according to the Black Bull website)

ABV: 50%

Chill-filtered: No

Color: 0.7, amber (natural colour).

Rested for ~10 minutes, before drunk neat in a glencairn.

Nose: Rancio, saline, broken-in polyurethane leather (I promise it's not as offputting as it sounds).

Palate: Medium texture. Apple chips, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and other dried trail mix stuff I can't really pick out specifically.

Finish: Warming, gentle and dry finish, savoury-sweet. Very light honey and five-spice meat glaze (think char siew) and a generous dose of candied ginger.

Conclusion: Not up my street - too dry, toasty, closed in and monotonous on the palate. Ditto on the nose. The finish is probably the best part of it, with the heat of candied ginger lifting it up. Respect to Duncan Taylor for bottling this at a good ABV though. I actually didn't know there was a grain component till I finished drinking it and written my notes, so I don't think I was primed to look at it disfavourably due to the grain.

Overall, it reminded me of eating stale-but-edible trail mix that had lay forgotten in a glovebox for too long, with the aromatic oils of the dried food all long evaporated.

If it were named by the SMWS: Glovebox Trail Mix

Score: 73

Scotch Review #24, Whiskey Network Review #26

H.Y.