Nose: Delicately floral, a touch of malty caramel, and toffee apple. Just the merest hint of bullshit on the tail-end.
Palate: More apple, immediately followed by a whack of vanilla spice. Not an overly complex undertaking but clearly quite effective nonetheless.
Finish: A resurgence of that rich spiciness, and a reminder that all joking aside, this really is quite a good whisky, and one that at such a competitive price, we are all very lucky to have in our lives.
Overall: Here's a goose story for you: When our commercial director, Tom's sister got married, me and Justin and Tom were invited to the reception. A few famous grouses after the speeches it seemed like a great idea to use the canoe that we'd found during an earlier recce of the grounds for 'hi-jinks'.
We carried it the quarter mile or so from its resting place to the outside of the reception venue, which was by a big lake. We promptly stripped down to our undercrackers and attempted to put the canoe into the lake (well, why wouldn't we?). Tom was forming the vanguard, and was repelled rather vociferously by a fully grown, very angry goose who had presumably been bribed by the venue staff to stop any kind of mischief.
Anyway - the sight of Tom, dressed only in his smalls, grabbing a goose by the neck to stop it from 'killing' him is one I'll never forget. Needless to say we prevailed - there was a swimming pool round the side of the venue, so we simply got in the canoe and went in that instead. If memory serves, the long-suffering venue staff had to 'poke' us out of the canoe with a pool cleaning net. I've got a photo of it somewhere if anyone's bothered enough.
So - erm - famous goose then. Yep. That's definitely a thing.