Meikle Tòir: The Chinquapin One 5 Year Old 48% 25ml

A peated Speyside single malt from the GlenAllachie distillery at Aberlour, bottled under Billy Walker’s Meikle Tòir label. The name is Gaelic for the big pursuit, and the bottle prints its own pronunciation guide: mee-kuhl tor.

Five years old, matured in American oak ex-bourbon barrels and finished in virgin chinquapin oak from the northern Ozarks in Missouri. The barley is kilned with mainland peat from St Fergus at 35 parts per million, which gives a sweeter smoke than the coastal malts, and the wash is fermented for 160 hours. Bottled at 48%, natural colour, non-chill-filtered.

The distillery gives the nose as smouldering oak embers, burnt liquorice and honey, with ginger, butterscotch and orange peel; the palate as cocoa, crème brûlée and toasted almonds, with cinnamon, aniseed and campfire smoke.