Okay, Ben Nevis to start the month. First up is a young one from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, bottled after 9 years in a first-fill hogshead. They gave it the name “Burning berries”, which is both downright prosaic by their usual whimsical standards and also, I must say, promising. Let’s see if that promise is kept.

Ben Nevis 9, 2012 (57.8%; SMWS 78.59; first-fill hogshead; from a bottle split)

Nose: Quite closed at first, with none of that Ben Nevis funk in evidence. After a bit of airing some fruit begins to emerge: lime, tart-sweet apple; some wet concrete as well. Opens up further as it sits: the lime expands and here finally is some of that Ben Nevis powdered ginger and yeasty dough; a bit of roasted malt in there too. With a few drops of water there’s a fair bit of vanilla and cream but the lime is still quite strong (and mixed in with some floral sweetness).

Palate: More happening here: the fruit from the nose is sweeter and is mixed with some sweet malt and some prickly white pepper. The yeasty notes show up here as well as it sits and merge nicely with the lime and the pepper. Continues in this vein. Water doesn’t bring out the vanilla or cream on the palate: it’s still all about the lime and pepper.

Finish: Long. The acid crests and then the roasted malt and powdered ginger emerge again. With water the lime hangs out longer, getting sweeter as it goes.

Comments: After an unpromising start on the nose, this blossomed very nicely. Thankfully, the first-fill oak is not able to dominate the spirit and the Ben Nevis character comes through clearly. Very nice indeed for just 9 years old, though I didn’t really get much of the “burning”, if any.

Rating: 87 points.