Starward Smoke and Mirrors Single Cask Oak Barrel Exclusive 57.5%ABV - 30ml / 50ml

'This comes from five separate 50 litre casks, all deemed too unique – or exciting – to blend away into the core releases they were intended for. They were vatted together into a 200-litre barrel (#109) for eight months.

Amongst those five casks were two first fill apera, two second-fill apera and one Pedro Ximenez barrel.

The first fill aperas are the youngest, coming in at five years old. The youngest spirit here was distilled 28 August 2015, funnily the week after Whisky Fair 2015 where the Reverse Double was launched. The second-fill aperas were distilled significantly earlier and would now be nine-and-a-half years old.

The PX cask is the earliest fill of the bunch, having been distilled 1 November 2010. This barrel was bottled in the last week of October 2020, just days before that spirit would have turned ten.

Smoke & Mirrors is powerful and bold Starward, showcasing deep dark fruit notes without losing the vibrant tropical fruit notes of the new make. We’ve decided to bottle this at natural cask strength, 57.5%, however after multiple tasting sessions – and there have been a few – we’ve got a hunch that this whisky is at its optimum at around the 52% mark. That’s a few drops of water, depending on the size of your glass. After those first neck pours, however, the need for water diminishes.

Try it neat, put a splash of water with it.

Toast great whisky and the people who make it when you do.'