Bacardi is best known for their world famous white rum but here Bacardi 8 Year Old is an intense, red-gold offering which is exceptional when added to spiced cocktails or enjoyed neat. The aroma is awash with buttery caramel, orange marmalade and banana leaf notes which lead to a medium bodied flavour which allows sweet Demerara sugar, apricots and gingerbread to take centre stage. Butterscotch and vanilla notes linger throughout with just a touch of nutmeg spice finishing it off.

Setting the standard in white rum, Bacardi is known worldwide. In 1862 it became the world’s first premium aged white rum and using charcoal filtration was key to its original development. Bacardi is a necessity for many world famous cocktails and without we’d not have the classic Daiquiri, the Mojito or the Cuba Libre. Smooth and gentle on the palate it’s wonderful however you choose to mix it and offers a taste of Cuba which can’t be compared.

The clue’s in the name with this one, Balvenie Doublewood Single Malt gets its name from the interesting distillation process, involving distillation in two woods. The maturation process involves moving the whisky from a traditional oak whisky cask to a Spanish oak sherry cask, adding more depth to its flavour and creating its warm, rounded character. Sweet fruit and sherry notes are apparent in its scent and the taste is mellow for a single malt, the sherry at work once more, with nuttiness and cinnamon notes building too.

The clue’s in the name with this one, Balvenie Doublewood Single Malt gets its name from the interesting distillation process, involving distillation in two woods. The maturation process involves moving the whisky from a traditional oak whisky cask to a Spanish oak sherry cask, adding more depth to its flavour and creating its warm, rounded character. Sweet fruit and sherry notes are apparent in its scent and the taste is mellow for a single malt, the sherry at work once more, with nuttiness and cinnamon notes building too.

This 21 Year Old Balvenie malt is the flagship of Balvenie’s small group of Port Wood whiskies and is a refined and balanced offering. It spends time maturing in thirty year old port pipes which deliver elegance to every sip. White peach and light smoke flood the nose and are quickly followed by a delicate flavour with red fruits, raisins and vibrant floral honey. Balvenie’s 21 Year Old malt is a wonderful example of delicate flavours blended perfectly together.

Dried pink grapefruit and earl grey tea followed by a strong liquorice undercurrent that leads into a sort of crushed Parma Violet sweets affair. Kick is woody and spicy and leads into juniper, bergamot and faint ginseng notes. All in all bloody good.