Bimber – Ex-Bourbon Oak Casks Batch #1 English Single Malt (2020) (70cl, 51.8%)

This is Batch 1 of Bimber's Ex-Bourbon Oak Casks release, an English single malt bottled at 51.8% in a 70cl bottle. The whisky is matured in American oak ex-bourbon casks, which add sweet vanilla and caramel flavours and a balanced spice to the fruit-forward spirit. Bimber grows all of its barley on its own farm, floor malts it, and ferments it for seven days in wooden washbacks before distilling in small direct-fired copper pot stills. The nose offers green apple peel and dried stone fruits with milk-soaked cereal, vanilla sponge, desiccated coconut and buttered toast. On the palate come orchard fruits, baked apricot and peppery spice alongside gently charred oak and creamy vanilla. The finish is sweet, with lasting spice.