Last week was a week of reviews of whiskies from distilleries in the highlands (Ben Nevis, Edradour and Clynelish). We’ll stay in the highlands to start this week, but only for a day. This week’s theme is whiskies matured or finished in madeira casks. First up is a 13 yo Inchmurrin (i.e fruity, unpeated Loch Lomond) that was bottled by the SMWS in a second-fill madeira hogshead. As far as I can make out, this was a full-term maturation. In the UK etc. this was given the name “I’ll beetroot to you”; in the US it was dubbed “Beat it”. Why not “Beet it”? Okay, let’s get to it.

Inchmurrin 13, 2007 (57.6%; SMWS 112.82; 2nd-fill madeira hogshead; from a bottle split)

Nose: Citrus (mix of lemon and orange peel) and oak off the top. After a minute the citrus expands and picks up some pineapple; the oak picks up some polish and there’s a slight metallic note and a leafy quality as well. As it sits there’s some pastry crust. With a bit of water it’s all about the orange peel and the polished oak.

Palate: Comes in with the orange peel in the lead; some caramel as well and some highly reduced plum sauce. Approachable enough at full strength; rich texture. The plum sauce moves in the direction of apricot jam as it sits and merges nicely with the other notes. Sweeter as it goes at first and then there’s more of the orange peel. With water the richer fruit from the finish comes out right away and there’s a fair bit of polished oak.

Finish: Long. Alas, the wine separates here and floats above the oak and orange peel. With time it recombines and now there’s more fruit here at the end, and it’s quite rich and musky: apricot, pineapple, a touch of fried plantain. Not much change here with water.

Comments: This threatened to fall apart on the finish on the first few sips but then came together really nicely with time and water.

Rating: 88 points.