Cadenhead‘s Enmore AWM 1988

Cadenhead bottled this Enmore 1988 at sixteen years old and full cask strength, 64.9 percent, carrying the AWM marque tied to the Enmore site. Enmore is home to the last operating wooden Coffey still in the world, a continuous still that gives a lighter, more elegant character than the oilier pot stills, and this is an unsweetened, natural-strength snapshot of it.

Matured in ex-bourbon wood, the nose is herbal and smoky with orange and banana, the palate oaky, herbal and strong over fruit, finishing on oak, spice, smoke and orange. The wooden Coffey character shows in the cedar-and-spice woodiness lifted by bright fruit rather than heavy tar. At this strength it pushes hard and rewards a little water, a vivid older Enmore where the fruit and herbal notes ride alongside the wood from the world's last wooden continuous still.