12/06/2026 Welcome tasting at 3 Greek Street

As a first act to a weekend of extravaganza, those who are already in town gather up at 3 Greek Street for a tasting with headmaster SW.

Two years ago, when it was still called Milroy's, we inaugurated the newly-refurbished tasting room on the first floor; this year, we are breaking in the room on the third floor. I viewed it on Wednesday: it was freshly painted, but bare, and still had tools on the floor. Today, tables and stools make it more welcoming.

It is a bit high up for some of the old knees on display, and the stairs are rather uneven, but we are all thrilled to be there, in that shiny and breezy new room.

pat gva, YdS, JS, BA, sonicvince, Psycho, ruckus, EJ, PS and cavalier66 join me for this shindig. We try everything in full knowledge of the label, for once.

Vat #3 30yo 1994/2025 (49.5%, Milroy Soho Selection, Peated Cask, C#36653+54+101180)

Nose: lovely toffee, soft, melting. It has a bit of mashed wood or papier mâché and chocolate-coated ginger slices.

Mouth: mellow, unctuous, it has delicious toffee, augmented with a lick of tropical fruits and a whisper of smoke from the Islay cask. It is creamy at second sip, with smashed peach and persimmon.

Finish: a comforting warming glow with toffee, slices of persimmon and chocolate-coated peach.

Comment: meow! A vatting of North British, Tormore and a "special blend". I tried this one on Wednesday and insisted SW use it as opener. It slaps just as much today. Most of the others seem as impressed. 

Score: 9/10

That adequately leads to my own contribution, which we try blind. The move was concerted with the staff ahead of schedule, of course.

Dram #1.2

Nose: olives (pat gva), olive bread (cavalier66), Stollen (Psycho). It becomes buttery as mango with some breathing.

Mouth: ever-changing (Psycho). Lychee and other tropical fruits (BA).

Finish: ruckus and EJ find it a lingering bitterness. sonicvince tells us it leaves the mouth a bit chalky. It is almost decaying fruits at second gulp. pat gva thinks the ABV is quite high, if well integrated.

Comment: "Glenlivet or Glen Grant" (pat gva). A little divisive, though mostly liked. My full notes are here.

Auchentoshan 22yo (48.3%, Creative Whisky Co. for The Good Spirits Co., 123b, b#101) 9/10

Tun 89 36yo 1989/2025 (52.4%, Milroy Vintage Reserve, Barrel, C#2500682)

Nose: cosmetic powder, lemon-drizzle cake, confectionary sugar. We have warm citrus segments at second nose.

Mouth: ooft! It is good to remind oneself how good Balvenie can be. This is custard with droplets of lemon juice and oily cake with almonds. Simply beautiful. It is a tad drying at second sip without being very bitter.

Finish: warming, it serves warm custard and vanilla cream. It turns a little more hay-like at second gulp and adds warm peach with a dusting of grated Aspirin.

Comment: we are flying high!

Score: 9/10

Royal Brackla 17yo 2008/2025 (47.4%, Milroy Soho Selection, Bourbon Barrel, C#6634)

Nose: lemon zest and herbs (tarragon, dried chives -- PS). SW calls it waxy, while I notice pineapple slices. It develops oily birch at second nosing, fragrant and beautiful.

Mouth: mellow, coating, silky and creamy. It is fruity yoghurt, smashed peaches served on wooden plates, plum tomatoes and tomato stems. The second sip revives the pineapple vibe. It is somewhat indistinct, but fruity and spicy overall. Delectable.

Finish: long and bright, it has pineapple and ginger powder. It tingles the gums. It is fruitier at second gulp, if slightly indistinct again.

Comment: this was meant to be a shared barrel with Taiwan, yet somehow washed up on these shores again. EJ calls it "a whisky for the Indian summer."

Score: 8/10

tOMoH: "I wake up early, so I sometimes water the plants naked on the terrace, to see if anyone is watching."
cavalier66: "No way! Mrs. cavalier66 does that all the time!"
tOMoH: "I was about to say: 'the ancient Greeks found it liberating.'"
cavali66: "She's not ancient!"

This is a good place to pause for food.

Cold cuts

Cheeses

Nachos, houmous and shortbread

Cold cuts, olives and strawberries

Inchgower 28yo 1997/2025 (56.6%, Milroy Vintage Reserve, Hogshead, C#6926)

Nose: grated orchard fruits (crisp apples and pears), saline sea breeze (PS), fleur de sel on a lovely vanilla custard and sherbet. It becomes buttery upon breathing -- buttery fruits such as mango and even avocado. It has crusty bread on a hot metal baking tray.

Mouth: very salty, here, it also has spurge shavings sprinkled on smoked mango, and a metallic touch. It has a eucalyptus-bark kick at second sip too.

Finish: there is a big dose of pepper at play. Strangely enough it does not seem to throw PS off too much who is sensitive to pepper. It is spicy on a bitter background. It develops cardboard and papier mâché applied on chicken wire -- in a good way. The second gulp brings pan-seared apples.

Comment: a hit on the night. pat gva is particularly enthusiastic, and already wondering whether his luggage allows him a bottle of this, considering how much loot he already has to carry.

Score: 8/10

SW: "[...] a microdot of [...]"
cavalier66: "Did you say 'microdot'?"
tOMoH: "Acid."
PS: "We're back to the Haçienda."
cavalier66: "You talk about whisky, and then you drop 'microdot'..."
tOMoH: "You drop indeed."

JL walks in.

JL: "The room downstairs is free. I'll just do a little clean-up."
tOMoH: "Yeah, please take a shower, mate!"

Kildalton 22yo 2003/2025 (53.7%, Milroy Vintage Reserve, Bourbon Barrel, C#112)

Nose: an excellent Ardbeggian nose, with old tarry ropes and ink, fishing nets and diesel, followed by stained boating gear, linseed oil and oil paint. Psycho finds it dusty.

Mouth: burnt wood-stick tips, ink, burnt rubber, creosote, tar and tarry ropes. Tapenade rocks up, as does diesel or kerosene.

Finish: long and grimy, it has more petrochemical compounds.

Comment: EJ adores this, without surprise. She finishes two or three drams and giggles the night away.

Score: 8/10

JS: "Those pours are too generous!"
tOMoH: "If you have too much, give it away. Someone will want it. Probably EJ or pat gva."

As planned, with five (six) drams in, we move down to the first floor. JS and I are worried about the food. In the kitchen, we catch sonicvince on a mission to polish it off. JL assures us he will bring the two slices of salami, half-a-bowl of nachos and the houmous downstairs, all that remains. We will never see them again. It will probably be JL's dinner.

Once in the usual tasting room, we resume our dramming -- blind, this time. SW explains these are cask samples, and we are the Guinea pigs who will help decide whether to bottle them or not.

Dram #2.1

Nose: wax (pat gva), cloying Sherry cask (cavalier66), plummy marzipan. Later on, we have ginger bread and French toast.

Mouth: thin spirit (cavalier66). We note pressed prunes on lacquered wood. Chewing releases a slap of juicy fruit. It is so fruity and juicy and sweet! Pressed sultanas and prune syrup.

Finish: big and prune-y, it also has figs (dried and fresh) and raisins or dried currants.

Comment: lovely drop, but where is the Auchentoshan character? This is a good Sherry, really. Psycho is all excited, of course. Two expressions from his favourite distillery on the same night.

Score: 8/10

Auchentoshan 38yo d.1987 (50.7%, cask sample, PX Cask)

pat gva: "Forty-two years?"
tOMoH: "No. Distilled in 1987, sample taken in 2026, that is thirty-nine years old [at most]. Give me your keys, you are not driving, tonight."
BA: "It's been a long day."

Dram #2

Nose: apple, candied apple (pat gva) and a slap of papaya in delicious custard.

Mouth: a little gravel and a lot of jam or marmalade, a dusting of pepper. Chewing sees lichen on Bourbon-barrel staves, fruity, vanilla-ed, and adds a fistful of cranberries to keep it interesting. It kicks harder at second sip.

Finish: it turns out to be another fruity number in the finish, with prunes and raisins.

Comment: wow.

Score: 9/10

Clynelish 9yo 2015/2025  (55.38%, Duty Free Sample, 2nd Fill Bourbon Hogshead, C#51245)

SW: "Bring the Irish, please."
JL: "What if there is no Irish left?"
tOMoH: "Come and tell me. I will make a scene."
Psycho: "Belgium style!"
tOMoH: "Hide your children; they're not safe."

SW: "We can't call it Bushmills, because of naming rights."
PS: "You could have called it Mill's Bush, which would have caused another string of legal problems."

Everyone has a dram, save for me, whom SW forgot (because I was behind).

tOMoH: "I don't have a glass."

PS: "tOMoH, you wouldn't like it."
tOMoH: "You sang a song for me. I had to pretend I was listening."
cavalier66: "Definitely not for you."
tOMoH: "Let me tell you in this country's language: 'I wouldn't mind trying this.'"
BA: "I heard it was quite good."
cavalier66: "Oh! Why didn't you say so?"

Causeway Irish Whiskey 31yo 1991/2023 (47.8%, Milroy Vintage Reserve, Bourbon Barrels, C#RC649+650+651+652)

Nose: banana-tree bark (Psycho), and loads of overripe mango and overripe papaya. This is ridiculous. Incredibly juicy. "Oh! But it is a fruit bomb!" pat gva points out.

Mouth: mellow, astonishingly fruity. It is at once acidic, bitter, drying in an ashy way, but it is that surreal fruit that dominates.

Finish: more dazzling fruitiness.

Comment: beyond notes, after eight drams. Boy! is it good or what?

Score: 10/10

tOMoH: "How was the Irish for you?"
PS: "It was quite good, thank you very much. I don't have much left to judge, though."
tOMoH: "I wish I could share mine with you, but there is no chance of that happening, is there?"
BA: "Oh. Meow."

Dram #4

Nose: dark grapes, plums, apple compote. It develops a chalky touch, but it remains very fruity. The second nose peddles plastic caps.

Mouth: pizza dough, chalky papaya -- phwoar!

Finish: long and juicy, fruity. We find smoked strawberry slices and apricot jelly.

Comment: the killeries keep coming.

Score: 9/10

Ardmore 47yo d.1978 (47.8%, Duty Paid Sample, C#8)

SW: "It's 1978."
PS: "It's a sufficient year."
SW: "I was finishing..."
tOMoH: "...your first tab of ecstasy!"

Dram #5

Nose: Fisherman's Friend (cavalier66), lemon juice sprinkled on cockles, then hay, mulch, mud and citrus. Excellent.

Mouth: warm, citrus-y mud, with calamansi purée and mango shavings. It is a trifle spicy too, with ginger powder.

Finish: big, hairy and a tad muddy. It then collapses under the weight of tropical fruits (mango, papaya, persimmon, cherimoya).

Comment: say, this is good, eh?

Score: 8/10

Bowmore 15yo d.2010 (56%, cask sample)

pat gva: "It's very different from the Bowmores we are used to."
tOMoH: "You mean the ones from the 1960s?"

The second line-up

What a night! Amazing drams in vast numbers, lots of silly nonsense, good food and the promise of a good weekend. The morning will be a little rocky at the start, but not for long.

14/06/2024 Tasting at Milroy's

Friends from all over the world flocked to London for some reason. It seemed the perfect excuse to give our friends at Milroy's their inaugural tasting (invoice #000001, I kid you not), after a brief period on refurbishment that is now long over still ongoing.

Although the bar and the shop are still under construction, the refit of the tasting room was completed earlier in the week. Just in time! And, boy! does it look dashing.

Waiting for EG and CB to arrive

Welcoming colours on the dark tip, small tables with stools, shelves stacked with whiskies all encourage moving through the room, stimulate social interaction with different groups, and create a merry atmosphere.

Once all (BA, CD, EG, EJ, JWB, JK, JS, TC, Psycho, ruckus, Savoureur, WhiskyLovingPianist, and tOMoH; PG has a client meeting, and Volanne calls off) have arrived, SW, who now works here, gives an extensive introduction of the company, the building, and explains the state of the venue. For details, it is best to attend yourself, but noteworthy for me is that the shop opened in November 1964 -- the month when those legendary Bowmore were distilled (all on Thursday, 5th November 1964, to be precise). There are lots of 'oooh', 'aaah', gasps, and 'no way' moments, as well as a fair share of laughter. Good start.

SW: "One of the contractors felt overwhelmed, and even cried a bit."
WhiskyLovingPianist: "That's how you mix the cement, innit."

Once the intro is out of the way, we are ready to taste. SW hands over to R&A, for whom it seems to be some sort of back-in-the-saddle exercise, after a period of quieter-than-usual business, due to the refurbishment. R will do most of the talking, tonight, and discloses that she "will go off script, today, as [she] understand[s] we are all seasoned whisky drinkers." We will try everything blind, she tells us. Yay.

Dram #1

Nose: bursting with citrus peels, dried peach skins, raising sourdough and flour. It is a little flowery in the way a pleasant fragrance would be.
Mouth: juicy citrus and plump peaches, orange liqueur, almost.
Finish: warming, again, very fruity, it is thick, coating, with just a pinch of spices, perhaps shaved pink peppercorns sprinkled on peach slices. WhiskyLovingPianist finds it a bready finish.
Comment: from an undisclosed Highland distillery, we venture lots of guesses, mostly for a teenage 'farclas, but also 'morangie. With more clues (Northern Highlands and Tony Blair), we venture Balblair, but are told no. I eventually guess Blair Athol -- it is confirmed on the night, yet that appears to be a mistake. Our previous attempt is the (alleged) distillery. 

A Highland Distillery 12yo d.2011 (56.4%, Milroy Soho Selection) 7/10

Dram #2

Nose: horse's sweat (Savoureur). It is indeed a dirtier Sherry cask, full of farmer's socks and dirty overalls, overripe-or-rotting grapes, maybe pony saddle? No! it is biscuit (WhiskyLovingPianist), and "clean filth" (WhiskyLovingPianist).
Mouth: ooft! This is very wine-y, overflowing with rotting grapes, currants macerating in booze, and slowly decaying as a result. It has a notch of drying putty too, though BA finds it oily. The second sip has strong ginger bathing in a grape liqueur. Nice.
Finish: long, inky and funky, the wine influence is strong, in this one. Cough syrup, melted chocolate (of questionable quality). This has hot strawberry paste and chocolate alright.
Comment: well-enough made, if not exactly my style. The funk and heavy wine make me guess Ben Nevis. Boom.

Ben Nevis 10yo 2012/2023 (57.1%, Milroy Soho Selection, Refill Hogshead re-racked into First Fill French Oak Oloroso Hogshead, C#1728, 278b) 7/10

R [referring to a recent change in Japanese law]: "Ben Nevis may be sold soon, because they can't chuck it into Japanese whisky anymore."
EG: "That's why [Japanese whisky] was so good. Because it's all Scotch."
tOMoH: "Indeed. Karuizawa is, in fact, Blair Athol."

Dram #3

Nose: very fruity! Cooked fruits (Savoureur), stewed fruits, a hint of mint (a hmint?) and tropical fruits coagulating into mint crumbles. Confectionary sugar comes up too, after a while.
Mouth: mellow, creamy, custard-y, with a chalky chew too. It grows in intensity to become fairly hot -- fierce, even.
Finish: long, warming, a little boozy, and very fruity. We have orchard fruits bathing in  strong liqueur, augmented with a dollop of melted milk chocolate.
Comment: universally liked, but we all fail to determine its provenance.

Allt-A-Bhainne 27yo 1995/2023 (52.6%, Milroy Vintage Reserve) 8/10

JK: "You said the shop is closed. How strict is that?"
R: "With the refurbishment going on, the shop is currently closed, as is the bar, because they are wastelands of rubble."
tOMoH: "What JK is asking is: if we like something tonight, can we buy it?"
JK: "That's it!"
R: "Ahhhhhh!"

Time for tOMoH's interlude (in agreement with the staff).

Dram #4

Nose: "a stand-out!" (WhiskyLovingPianist) "Is it okay to say that?" he asks. Water adds a sprinkle of pepper to this nose (Savoureur).
Mouth: white pepper coats the tip of the tongue (R and WhiskyLovingPianist). R calls it a deceptive dram, and TC finds bell pepper, aka capsicum.
Finish: "age but youth" explains WhiskyLovingPianist, pencil case and pencil erasers (JWB).
Comment: a stand-out indeed. Full notes here. CB reckons a teenage Longmorn, whereas Savoureur claims it is not a Lochside. Once revealed, EG looks it up online: he is convinced he gets the reference wrong, because the ratings are so low for such a great whisky. As Mark Twain once said: "Do not believe everything you read online."

Glenugie 26yo 1982/2008 (50%, Douglas Laing The Old Malt Cask 50º, Bourbon Barrel, C#4703, 310b) 9/10

As we finish the Glenugie, JL comes back from his off-site tasting. I am miffed: I chose a Glenugie so he could try it. Then, knowing he would not be here after all, we polished the bottle. Now he is back, and there is none left. Bah!

Dram #5

Nose: dry peat, hay, crusted earth, crayons. Tropical fruits pop up too, then roasted barley, to an extent (TC). I find old Lego bricks -- or is it new ones straight out of the plastic bag? In any case, they are yellow.
Mouth: akin to biting into a bar of dark chocolate. It dries the gums, in the long run, with plasticine, chewy blackcurrants and cough drops. That probably means rubbery, acidic, yet mildly fruity.
Finish: long, dry, hay-like, it introduces lots of dark chocolate and dark ink.
Comment: some guesses, mostly Ardmore and Faemussach. Even before the confirmation, we understand it is not an Islay number. Still, the suggestion it may be a Jura takes us all by surprise. Except CB, who nailed it.

A Highland Distillery 19yo 2004/2023 (55.5%, Milroy Soho Selection, Refill American Oak Bourbon Barrel, C#12, 268b) 8/10

R: "I thought of buying a bottle, but I preferred paying my rent."
Psycho: "You could be a very successful alcoholic on the street."

Dram #6

Nose: salty (JS), meat tatters stuck on leather, tame baby sick, then it regroups around leather saddles, old boots, and mud patties -- though calling it muddy would be a stretch.
Mouth: melted chocolate and rooibos tea, a pinch of ashes, and barbecue sauce.
Finish: big, smoky and animal, it becomes earthy. Scorched earth, to be precise.
Comment: the only one I had tried before, and suggested SW should feature it in tonight's line-up to mess with people's heads. It does exactly that.

Caol Ila 4yo 2019/2023 (61.4%, Milroy Soho Selection, Rivesaltes Barrique) 8/10

SW, never one to pour too little whisky, has a couple of things to add. None of which can be bought.

Dram #7

Nose: artichoke (Psycho), a tad peaty (Savoureur). It has a vague peat smoke indeed, and a drop of pickle brine.
Mouth: a nice kick of fruit, here, mostly tinned peaches in syrup.
Finish: more fruit, and melted chocolate appears too, flirting with earth, in the long run.

Comment: contains liquid that is 23yo, 30yo, 35yo, 40yo and 53yo.

Mayfair Stash Speyside Region (unknown ABV, home blend) 8/10

ruckus: "We leave on Wednesday."
tOMoH: "So does Psycho."
ruckus: "Hopefully, we don't see him again."

Dram #8

Nose: rum, metal and heated wooden stills. There are fruits too, chiefly tinned pineapple and tinned peach slices.
Mouth: metal and chewy plasticine. This is incredibly rum-y.
Finish: long, fruity, influenced (tainted) by rum.
Comment: I think of Enmore immediately. We are all flabbergasted to discover it is a home-made 70cl rumsky with only 3cl of rum in it (I forget which, but not Enmore), ~30cl Springbank, and a ~30cl vatting of odds and sods. Headache in a bottle, as The Police used to say, yet for the time being, life is fun.

Rumsky (unknown ABV, home blend) 8/10

Inspecting the bounty

I stupidly forget to take pictures of the bottles. Thanks Milroy's for letting me use theirs.

We could go elsewhere for a nightcap, but we know better. We socialise a bit, make plans for tomorrow, disband, and go home for some rest.

A good night out!

28/11/2018 Craigellachie 51 at Milroy's

The news dropped a month or so ago: Craigellachie was to release a 51yo expression. Fifty-one years old. Impressive, eh? The promotional blurb they published alongside was that they were worried and mildly annoyed that the desirability and the inevitable price tag would almost certainly lead to those bottles of 51yo whisky going from auction house to collector's shelf to auction house, the liquid inside being never truly appreciated. They wanted to find a way to not only counter that, but also to ensure that as many enthusiasts as possible got to try the beast. They came up with a scheme: anyone interested was able to enter a draw; the names drawn would be invited to a session with a small group, and a brand ambassador would pour the amber liquid. For free.
The scheme received unanimous praise and the initiative was widely saluted. Here was a company that would sacrifice more than £50k to pour whisky for enjoyment. Of course, I entered the ballot. And did not win.

Last Friday, out of the blue, I received an email from idealrichard, once a regular at our tastings, who has been sucked into other duties for the past three years. He had been chosen and asked me if I wanted to be his guest. How nice is that?

And here we are tonight, waiting to be taken downstairs at Milroy's for the tasting. Once there, in a cask-shaped alcove, someone realises we have not had the introduction upstairs. Thinking it will be a five-minute affair, I leave my stuff in the alcove (that will trigger some teasing from all, later on) and proceed upstairs, to a hidden room behind a curtain. There, a brand ambassador whose name I cannot recall tells us a little about Craigellachie and pours the 13yo and 17yo. I take no notes (my notebook is downstairs), but like them quite a bit. The 17yo especially, which is much more refined and complex. The other two attending with us admit they have never tried Craigellachie before, which surprises me. I am also surprised that the girl promptly tells us what we are supposed to smell and taste in these two, as I know suggestion is almost impossible to overcome. The bits of history she tells are more interesting to me, as is the information that Craigellachie gets its malt from Glen Esk Maltings and that it is oil-fire dried for them -- the only distillery in Scotland with such a requirement. I ask whether the fact their age statements are prime numbers is a deliberate choice: it is. Just do not mention the 33yo and, now, the 51yo. ;-)

It is only ten to fifteen minutes before we are back downstairs for the main act. Georgie Bell introduces the bottle: it was a single cask of whisky distilled on the 22nd December 1962 and bottled in 2014. There is a chance the proprietors wanted to wait another couple of years, for this to be a prime-number age, but at 40.8%, the ABV in the cask was too low to take that risk. As it turns out, it was even lower by the time they actually bottled it: 40.3%. Bell then talks us through the idea of having a draw and pouring this for the lucky winners for free, instead of selling it "for hundreds of thousands of pounds," which is extremely optimistic for a Craigellachie, even at that age, I think to myself (compare with Glenglassaugh 53yo, RRP £5300 or Bowmore 50yo, RRP £22000 -- even the almighty Black Bowmore 50yo had an RRP of £25000, and Craigellachie is not Bowmore, in terms of desirability -- but I digress). Bell gives us some tasting notes as well, which I do my best to ignore: I am after my own impressions, not a list of nuances that an employee of the producer's tells me I should find in this whisky, thank you very much.

The liquid.

Craigellachie 51yo 1962/2014 (40.3%, OB Single Cask, Refill Bourbon Hogshead, C#001940, 51b): note the number of bottles! Nose: ha! The unmistakable depth of something very old indeed and, more precisely, a depth that is seldom felt in anything distilled on this side of the 1960s. All sorts of flowers, starting with jasmine and lilac, but also fresh paint and new match sticks. Soon, satsuma foliage joins the dance, as well as dried satsuma peels and citrus jams. It is a very complex nose alright, and I am delighted to be here, already. Mouth: soft, mild, almost weak. It is gently grassy, with a pinch of ginger, perhaps rose-petal jam and squashed apricot, too. Good enough palate, but probably too soft. Those two youngsters upstairs at 46% now appear to have been a terrible idea, numbing the mouth in a way that this old and frail juice cannot shake back into shape. It feels tired, with the texture of watery peach nectar. Finish: fresh, but also dry, it has bay leaves, crushed lemongrass, frankincense and rose-petal jam. It grows fruitier with each sip, and the whole is long and bold, very long, in fact. The lasting impression is that of rose-petal jam on balsa wood, sprinkled with lychee juice. An excellent dram, somewhat let down by a rather weak palate. I had it at 8 because of that, but the growing finish note encourages me to push it up a bit. 9/10

Was it worth it? Well, yes, of course. What an opportunity! Thanks, idealrichard.
All the same, if the initiative is laudable, I thought the implementation, although very corporate (branding everywhere, goodie bags, complimentary cocktail and all), was a little clumsy, in parts.

• Of course this is a publicity stunt to promote the core range, yet serving two core-range drams prior was a huge mistake that desensitised the taste buds before the frail old lady. A mere look at the ABV pretty much makes that clear
• A publicity stunt, by its very nature, is meant to attract new customers; that worked, since some had never had a Craigellachie before. The unfortunate downside is that many who have tried Craigellachie and like it did not have a chance to try and like this special one. Perhaps those newcomers may not have appreciated it as much as others would have
• Crucially, if having a maximum of eight guests per session makes it a more intimate event, it means that sessions have to be short to roll guests in and out quickly, so all can attend over the course of two evenings. Result: we spent less than twenty minutes with a dram that, given its age, would have required an hour or two
• Finally, the cask-shaped alcove is an attractive novelty, but not the most comfortable
• I will not talk about the incense, lit at the entrance of the venue; it could have ruined the nosing, but did not -- phew!

Still, the above is very minor discontent to balance what was a good experience, nonetheless. I am sure a move like this one will attract attention and respect for a distillery that, not ten years ago, was completely overlooked. Considering the quality of their products, I say it is deserved.