Our Macduff bottled last year from the same vintage (cask #6886) sold out fast, but luckily we had a sister cask in store! Once again, it’s a very rich, deep, intense old malt… only, this time it’s much more wood-driven: the impressive array of tropical fruits (banana, mango, passion fruit, and this time even grapefruit and a hint of green apple at the attack) is still at the forefront, but it’s immediately obvious both at nose and palate that it has to fight hard with equally intense oak, liquorice, strongly brewed black and red tea… and even a hint of unflavoured pipe tobacco. The final result is still very fruity but not as sweet as expected, and particularly spicy, balsamic and very herbal, too. Powerful!