Nose: rich and pulpy multivitamin juice notes: passion fruit, guava, mango and sweet oranges. The Irish grassiness lingers behind the fruit basket, but it's quite mild and not accompanied by mint and menthol notes like with other 1991 Irish indie malts. That makes it a similarly great, but less complex nose. After a while there are some nice and soft malty notes that are beautifully interwoven with the overall very fruity profile.
With water peaches and grapefruit are added to the fruit basket, dressed with some milk chocolate sauce.
Taste: sweet and punchy start, but the alcohol is quite dominant in my opinion. Only after a while the fruity flavour returns and gives way to a more nuanced palate. Oranges, mango, passion fruit, tart kiwi, cut grasses and tree branches and wood spice. This is quite good, but it's even better.
With water: Much better balanced, with more maltiness keeping the whole thing together. The development is exquisite, sweet, fruity, tart, spicy and malty, and now it's the first time that i can taste a menthol note in there. Interestingly enough, the palate (with water) is better and more complex than the nose had been promising.
Finish
Long, on soft & light sherry, sweet and dry. Coming back on mango and cinnamon.
