The notes and scores, collated from eighty people, are as follows:
Laphroaig Quarter Cask 48% Score 9.08 Came First.
NOSE: Very peaty, vanilla icing on a bun, fish oils, musty, thick, fruit beer, pears, berries,
peaches, toffee plums, meths, chocolate, floral, cut grass, tobacco, fruity smoke, cigarette,
sour dough, juicy fruit, cinnamon gum, toffee, vanilla, bandages.
PALATE: Peaty, sweet, chocolate, liquorice, oily thick, sparkly Islay, iodine, dense, tongue
hugger, candy floss.
FINISH: Big kick... then it kisses you better! with salt, heat, sweet sparkly smoke, black
pepper, bitter note, 4 hours long.
Lagavulin 16yo 43% Score 8.60 Came Second.
NOSE: Banana, Speysidey leather, clean, apricots, varnish, astringent, caramel smoke, balance,
rich, smooth, orange peel, vanilla ice cream, umbrellas, summer, marmalade biscuits, calamine
lotion, rubber hint, tannins, beer.
PALATE: Sweet, oily, buttery, mild sherry, medicinal seaweeed, balance, tannins, flies.
FINISH: Complex, bitter, sand, bitter/citrous note, smoke, dry, metals, humbugs, currants, clean
chlorine, nutty, almonds, astringent, minerals, subtlely long.
Bruichladdich Waves 46% Score 8.37 Came Third.
NOSE: Fruit, coastal pears, over-ripe apples, melon liquour, rosé, chocolate, smoke and peat,
some prickle, lychee, vinyl, butterscotch, maple, caramel, benzine, coconut pina colada, figs,
salt, raincoats, car wash, teddy bears, curtain netting, rich honey, sherrywood, sweet, powdery,
orange, strawberry, toffee.
PALATE: Sweet caramello, Xmas cake, weird, creamy, oily, sherry/port, smooth, like nose, savoury
sausage, leather, smoke, heavy, grizzly bear, fizz, warm, metal.
FINISH: Pepper, peaches, nectarine flavouring, chocolate, L&P, soft sweet smoke, bitter salt and
sweet ash, taxis, longish.
Kilchoman Winter 2010 46% Score 8.33 Came Fourth.
NOSE: Ashtray, yesterday's campfire, oily, saw dust, grandma, new garden hose, peat, seaweed,
iodine, leather, honey sandwhiches, burnt sugar, laquer varnish, plastic solvent, current buns,
clay, vanilla, young, celery, dry, grass, dried peach, cereal, tar, wet ashpalt, light, clean,
gets friendly, dental clinic, ozone, fish.
PALATE: Sticky sweet, Oily, big, more alc, sweet peat smoke, earth, tongue-hugging, thick, in
your face, ash, smooth, rich.
FINISH: Sweet smoke, peat ash, spicy Xmas pudding, bitter biscuit tin, salt, pepper, dry,
perfumed, cigarette, medium/long.
Port Ellen Sept 1982 bottled G&M Sept 2009 43% Score 8.32 Came Fifth.
NOSE: Apples, yeast, spearmint, playdough, linseed, deisel, chardonnay, vanilla, floral, oily
fish, salt, tobacco pipe smoke, tea, damp tweed, lychee,fermenting fruit, sweet, linen, almond
icing.
PALATE: Syrupy, custard, peaty, fish, oily, smokey bacon.
FINISH: Sweet then the smoke, then salt, putty, vanilla, cinnamon, coffee liquour, biscuity,
leather, spice, afterburn, medium/long.
Ardbeg 10 yo 46% Score 8.29 Came Sixth.
NOSE: Dry, iodised salt, Islay, tarmac, peat, creamy honey, oily apricots, depth, musty,
leather, marzipan, liquorice, rubber, grappa, spring rain on tarseal, wet newspaper, pine, burnt
pies.
PALATE: Friendly (breakfast malt), strong, oily, perfumed, astringent, metals, ashtray yet sweet
note.
FINISH: Bright, Cheese, smoke, salt, tobacco, woody, builds, light and refreshing, bitter
wallnuts, fire, young, mouthwash, glossy chinese wrapping paper, wet newspapers, medium/long.
Bowmore Darkest 15yo Sherry Cask Finish 43% Score 8.11 Came Seventh.
NOSE: Fruitcake, very sweet, toffee, perky nana chocolate, rich, BBQ HP sauce, preserved
cherries, Speyside, sherry, wet jersey, dusty books, shoe polish, onions, leather, brown sugar,
tamarind, salty raisins, sherry, flyspray, maple, caramel, vanilla nuts, musty varnish, tobacco.
PALATE: Dark chocolate, rum balls, bitter/sweet, apples, prunes, peat, sherry, banana, ceme
brulee, lovely balance, malt, motor oil, a little smoke and peat.
FINISH: Salty air, smoke, dries out, old coats, sweet, rich, burnt forest, saddlery, chalk, medium.
Bunnahabhain 12yo new bottling 46.3% Score 8.04 Came Eighth
NOSE: Woody, sweet toffee, apples, liquorice, sulphur hint, pencil shavings, salt, ascetone,
marmalade, sherry, butter, candy floss, ham, cigars, sherry, leather, beer, pollen, meths,
syrupy, caramelized onions, raisins, tarseal, carrots, sweet, age, weight, caramel.
PALATE: Bitter/sweet, oak, astringent, smoke, gritty, coast, coffee, chocolate, thick, paper bags.
FINISH: Bitter/sweet Chocolate, sherrywood, nutmeg, whiff of spicy tang, match head, coffee,
over brewed tea, burnt tyres, medium/longish.
Caol Ila 12yo 43% Score 7.88 Came Ninth.
NOSE: Islay, apples, ozone, dry smoke, rubber, iodine, oily seaweed, chalk ash, salt, pepper,
smoked cheese, fresh, fruity, medium peat, wet dog, cooking, dry, bourbon, coffee, new plastic
chair in the shade, beach, smooth, bread, beer, charr.
PALATE: Oily, easy, bright, salt, pepper, smoking leaves, like nose, peat, toffee.
FINISH: Smoke, peat, dries, bitter salt, hot spice, bourbon wood, cigar, hint watery, longish.
Slainthe, DMM