Tesco 10yo Islay

[TheTross]

Nose: Peaty and peppery. Some lemon, hints of banana essence and possibly pear drops. Some salt and maritime hints (brine, seaweed, wet sand). Faint hints of sherry.

Palate: Pepper and peat again. Fairly briny. Lemon. Slightly ashy. A vague sherried sweetness. Quite oily.

Finish: Fairly non-descript immediately, but a little lemon and vanilla and some peppery, ashy notes come through after a few seconds. A soft, fruity peatiness brings up the rear.


The nose is decent enough but the palate and finish don't really match it. Still, it's pretty decent for supermarket fare and it has a definite southern-Islay feel to it, so might be worth a cheap punt.

[Willie JJ]

2011 version

Nose: Powerful vanilla overwhelms the smoke at first, but herbal kippery fumes kick in
Palate: light but very sweet palate somewhat lacking in characer
Finish: Salty smoke with more herbal notes
Comment: I suppose its cheap. I've had better batches from Tesco