Taster

Nose: Pretty oaky stuff: wood notes succeed in dampening the honey onslaught. A puff of smoke?

Palate: Early honey-malt in the true Glenturret tradition, then a wave of pretty big oak that suggests the end was just about nigh when bottled.

Finish: Burnt honeycomb and toffee blends well with the softening oak and that opaque trail of smoke.

Comment: Brinkmanship at its bravest and best: another summer would have done this one in.

Score: 8.3

Taster

Nose: Decidedly more peaty.

Palate: Smooth. Fragrant peat-smoke throughout. Very distinctive, but lacks complexity.

Finish: A late interplay between intense malty sweetness and peat-smoke.

Comment: Distillery bottlings of Glenturret from this era tend to be quite sherryish, but this Signatory edition is not. The absence of sherry reveals the use of a truly peaty malt in the 1970s.

Score: 7.8