M&S’ Distilled vary is a spirit vary designed with cocktails firmly in thoughts. There are quite a few entries right here, all produced by main distillers within the UK particularly for M&S, and particularly for a price range price-point. However the low costs belie the standard of the spirits themselves – as evidenced by the M&S Distilled 8 Years Aged Blended Scotch.
This whisky is a shock, and a welcome one at that. There’s an excessive amount of dried and aged fruit to be discovered on the nostril, in some way extra paying homage to brandy than of whisky. There’s apricot, fig and raisin at first sniff, with a spiced edge that conjures a faint picture of freshly baked mince pie. That is supported by a slight evocation of rock sugar – at which level this author offers in utterly to the attract of baked goods-as-metaphor, because the whisky turns into a Belgian sugar waffle; jolts of crunchy sweetness sit amongst fluffy dough.
These indulgences are vindicated at first sip, too, with a smooth, rounded molasses-sweetness that transmogrifies that mince pie into extra of a treacle tart. For all of the sweetness going spherical, it’s a nonetheless slight whisky on the tongue. It dries up quick, burns teasingly, and turns into moreish for it.
This can be a welcome shock of a whisky, and one which certainly lends itself to quite a lot of cocktail recipes on account of its sweetness and delicate complexity.