Waterford Bannow Island Edition 1.2...

Waterford Bannow Island Edition 1.2 (50.0%): The eight and last sample from Waterford distillery (at least for a while) is another 2nd Edition. Bannow Island 1.2 is distilled in June 2016, aged in a combination of 1st fill ex-Bourbon, new American oak, ex-French wine and ex-Sherry casks before being bottled in June 2020 when the whisky was almost 3 years and 11 months old. You can use the "teireoir" code F014E01-02 on Waterford's website or simply click on this "link" to reach a lot more info about this particular bottling. Only 9,000 bottles have been made available exclusively for European and Asian markets.

Color: Deep and saturated yellow gold color almost like a white Port with quick but thick and oily legs all around the glass.

Nose: Honey syrup, cornflakes and almond cookies. This is quite nice... Lemon curd, apple skin and rose petals. 

Palate: Rosemary, pine honey and sweet malt. Canned pineapple rings and canned peach halves. Wood shavings, fresh ginger and spearmint leaves.

Finish: Shorter than I would like it to be. Ground coriander, lemon zest and eucalyptus drops.

Overall: I really liked this one... Quite a lot actually. Very balanced for a young spirit which is not even full four years old. It's citrusy, spicy and sweet. Piney, honey and canned fruit notes are equally spread from nose to finish. Still young and needs definitely more time in the cask obviously but I think it's my favorite single farm release if we don't count Gaia 1.1 since that one was a blend of whiskies distilled from barley grown by six different organic farms. Thanks to Koray Kaan Özdemir a.k.a. Whisky Monster for making this long Waterford marathon possible.

Price: £70

87/100