Gordon & MacPhail’s Discovery range is organized in a refreshing manner. Rather than using the somewhat outdated “Scotch regions,” the bottlings are organized by style: “Bourbon”, “Smoky” or “Sherry”.
This move recognises that in modern Scotch distilling styles that were traditionally associated with certain regions (peated whisky and Islay, for example) are now often to be found around the country. This particular bottling, from Highland distillery Balblair, forms part of the Bourbon category, referring to its maturation style.
A 12 year old dram, the whisky serves up heaps of soft orchard fruits, malt, vanilla, honey, toffee, woodspice, grass, hay, and apricots.
This Balblair is bottled at the slightly higher proof of 43% ABV.
As is to be expect with G&M, this is an extremely high quality whisky.