Each month we have a Monthly Pick to highlight an available SMWS release that we think deserves some extra attention, which comes with a promotional price. This month it is Keep Your Vikings!, a 13yo single malt Scotch from Speyside.

SPIRIT NOTES

The nose was immediately fresh and evocative of this whisky's island origins, full of sea air, coastal rock pools, dried seaweed, heather flowers and gorse. We also noted impressions of shilling ales and salted honey. Water enhanced the saline aspects and introduced further aromas of sandalwood, beach pebbles and surf foaming on sand. The palate was initially redolent with gentle, crisp Orcadian peat smoke, then more salted honey, herbal liqueurs and smoked oatmeal. We found it gorgeous and wonderfully natural. With reduction we thought it really became stunning, with rich, layered Orkney peat flavours, iodine, aniseed, smoked lemons and tar. At six years of age, we combined selected casks from the same distillery. We then returned the single malt into a variety of different casks to develop further. This is one of those casks.