Cotswolds Distillery – Reserve (70cl, 50%)

Cotswolds Reserve is an English single malt in a 70cl bottle, bottled at 50% without chill-filtration or added colour. Eighty per cent of the whisky was matured in first-fill bourbon barrels and twenty per cent in STR red wine casks made from American oak. The two are vatted together rather than given a red wine finish. The barley is grown and floor-malted entirely in the Cotswolds. The nose combines caramel and vanilla with juicy apples, chocolate and a little coconut cream. On the palate, honey and malt sweets sit alongside warm grain, with marzipan and orange peel behind. The long finish leaves peach skin, acacia honey and light almond notes.