Thompson Bros. Worthy Park The Whisky Exchange 2007

Scotland's Thompson Bros, a whisky house with a sure hand on single casks, bottled this Worthy Park from the 2007 vintage for The Whisky Exchange, a single cask at 58% and unsweetened. Worthy Park's clean, precise pot still style takes well to this kind of patient ageing, and at twelve years it leans more toward wood and richness than wild funk.

Molasses fermentation and 100% pot still distillation give the estate's banana and tropical fruit, with a cherry note and ester lift on the nose. Tropical ageing in ex-bourbon oak pushes the palate toward toasted wood, vanilla sweetness and dark chocolate alongside the fruit, with a dry, roasted, oak edged finish. For 58% it drinks remarkably easily, trading brute funk for an integrated, richer profile. A characterful but approachable Worthy Park for drinkers who like their Jamaica woody and calm.